Chapter Text
“Argh… so heavy.”
Yoichi slightly cranes his neck back and adjust his grip on the four plastic bags that he’s holding, each hand holding two. Relishing that split second of relief when the bags were lifted from his fingers.
“Stop complaining. We’re almost there anyway.” He says to his companion and continues to walk, the heavy plastic bags weighting on his fingers again.
Despite being an athlete full of muscle, he can’t help but agree with his megane companion. The plastic bags they’re carrying aren’t light. Yoichi sighs as the memory of the employee’s face flashes when they arrived at the cashier to check out. They had bought a ton of flour, eggs, sugar, milk, butter and other essential things for a cake. And by mean a ton, he means a ton. He doesn’t even want to recall the sight of the number on the receipt. Where they got the money to even afford the things they bought is something he also doesn’t want to remember, though he is thankful for the members who generously donated a good sum and those who sacrificed their life to have the coach give a bit of his money and essentially just to agree to the whole thing they’re planning. Rest in peace, their bravery will be remembered.
They planned to bake the cake from scratch since the person they’re planning this for once mentioned that they would love it if something was made from scratch and they’re determined to do that (although they know that their idiot ace will love any cake they him give regardless how it was made or even if it’s an already made store-bought cake because he’s just like that). They wanted to show their ace that they appreciate him and to make him happy, so why not right? But no matter how much they want to show that appreciation by making it from nothing, they still bought a premade cake mix just in case things go very south and Yoichi knows it will.
You see, the baseball club are a talented bunch but baking is not one of them. You can expect them wasting five bags of flour and still not make a decent cake. Better to have a backup plan just in case.
After a few more grunts, complains and short stops of breaks, they finally arrived at Seidou. Yoichi hears a long sigh of relief come from behind him and he can’t help but do the same. They’re hands are finally free from these heavy bags of ingredients.
They’re greeted at the front of the dorms by Nori who was generous enough to take one bag from him and Miyuki, his companion on this unintentional night exercise.
“You guys bought a lot.” Nori comments as they try to silently walk to the dining room which is very clear from their vision as it’s the only room right now that has its lights on.
Yoichi could only sigh, “We know we aren’t getting this thing down in one go.”
He hears a low chuckle from Nori before turning to the dining room door. They enter and were greeted there by a few of the first-strings who were waiting for them to arrive and a few first years, namely Okumura, Seto, Yui, and Asada.
Miyuki, Nori and him put the bags down the table and immediately after letting go, they flex their fingers. Fucking finally.
Zono comes forward to check the bags and smiles at them, “Welcome back! You guys bought everything?” Zono’s loud voice echoes through the room.
Yoichi was about to say a loud response himself but shuts his mouth when he hears a slightly scolding voice from Shirasu whose making his way to check the bags as well, “Lower your voice, it’s already late. We might wake up a few members.”
“Ah, right, right.” Zono says on a much lowered volume and a little dust of pink on his cheeks. And right it is. It’s already late so most members are asleep. Though usually… now that Yoichi thought about it… did he check?
He looks at the direction where the first years are sitting. “Asada.” He calls and the timid first year slightly flinches before meeting his eyes. “Is Sawamura asleep?”
Well shit if he isn’t. The very reason why they’re even staying awake right now and doing this at an ungodly hour despite being tired as hell was because they wanted to keep this a secret. If that moron is awake, then he might get suspicious. Yoichi might call him an idiot but really, Sawamura can get really perceptive if he wants to… but he’s still an oblivious idiot.
“Yes, senpai.” Asada answers and he lets out a relief exhale. “Sawamura-senpai was pretty tired. After he took a bath he instantly went to his bed and fell asleep, senpai.”
Yoichi crosses his arms and smiles, remembering the game and how great of an ace and reliable his kouhai had become. “Figures, he just played at a practice match after all.”
“Well, he better be.” Miyuki says from his left who’s also sitting and has his signature grin plastered on his face. “Or else I’m not catching for him tomorrow.”
Yoichi laughs but careful not to be too loud, “Yeah? But sucks for you,” he darts a thumb at a first year’s direction, “now he could always just ask Okumura if you refuse him, right? Okumura?” as if on cue, the first year growls, audible to everyone in the room.
Yoichi badly wants to laugh out loud right now with Miyuki’s earlier grin now gone and a frown has been replaced while he has a devilish grin on him. Ha! Catchers. And they say pitchers are greedy, you’re all the same.
“Haha, very funny, Kuramochi.” Miyuki says as he stands up, his smirk plastered again but a little strained and there’s a glint in his eyes. Really, if it weren’t at the late hours of the night and there weren’t sleeping players, he would have crackled out loud.
“Okay, everyone, listen up.” Miyuki says, gaining everyone’s attention, his face serious. “Starting tomorrow, we have three days to make a cake from scratch without asking help from the managers.”
Right… without asking help from the managers. Yoichi shakes his head. He can already imagine the mess they will be making.
“We already talked about this before, so I assume you already know what your roles.” The captain continues. The shortstop nods along with everyone else because yeah they did, prior to this, they already did talk about it. Now that he thought about it aren’t they a bit… partial?
“But still, let me repeat myself, we can’t always do this late at night for three days or else Coach will have our heads.” They all shivered at the thought. “Us third years will bake the cake, but the second and first years can always help. Try to come to the kitchen and help as much as you can.” The second and first years in the room all nods.
“But don’t forget your main goal is to distract our little idiot and make sure he doesn’t notice anything,” another nod from them. “We third years will do the same in case you guys are the ones baking. Let’s keep him out of the dining room for now.”
“We have three days to make a good cake for our dear ace, let’s take our time but not too much. Let’s try not to burn the kitchen, and if anything happens, we always have plan B.” Miyuki smirks, for the first time since he started talking about the plan, “Let’s keep this low-key and a secret from him shall we?”
Yoichi can’t help but look at Miyuki in awe as they’re walking back to their dorms after their meeting at the dining room and everyone shouted a loud “Alright!” but immediately shushed themselves.
“What?” the catcher asks looking at him confused.
“Wow,” he says in disbelief and a mixture of utter shock. “I think that’s the first time I saw you act as a captain.”
Miyuki glares at him, “Hey now…”
“I’m serious. Do you only act as a captain when it’s not baseball related?” a grin forms in the shortstop’s face, he tries to suppress a loud laughter, “Is it because of the occasion? Because it’s the birthday of our beloved kohai ace pitcher?” Yoichi’s teasing but he knows as well it’s damn true.
“Shut up.” The catcher glares but Yoichi can see a slight shade of red on his neck despite the dim lighting. “I just want things to go as planned alright?” the catcher adds.
Yoichi snickers. “Course you do.” Miyuki only rolls his eyes at him.
“But you know.” The shortstop starts after a few seconds of silence, “Aren’t you being partial?”
A beat, then Miyuki answers, “I’m not.”
He looks at the catcher incredulously, “You mean, you, our team captain, suggesting to secretly bake a cake—which is basically secretly throwing a birthday party for him—for a team member, is not being partial to him?”
Miyuki shakes his head, “No. And it’s not throwing a party, it’s just baking a cake and a few balloons for fun.”
For fun? Is his captain serious?
“Besides, isn’t it normal to bake a cake for a team member?” Miyuki adds.
Yoichi raises a brow, “Uh no? Captain, let me remind you that you didn’t do this previously with our other members.”
A pause.
Miyuki grins at him, “Aren’t you partial with him too?”
Yoichi shrugs. What’s the point in lying right?
Miyuki looks at him in shock for a moment before immediately plastering his grin again as if the momentary shock didn’t happen, “You’re our vice-captain. You shouldn’t be partial.”
He gives another shrug, “I’m his roommate, what’d you expect? At least I have an excuse, what’s your excuse? You’re our captain.”
He sees Miyuki wince. This bastard…
“I’m not being partial and I already talked to the team, they seem fine with it.”
I bet. Because if Yoichi were being honest, most members on their team is slightly, if not all secretly partial to their resident loudmouth who is also the mood maker of their team and ace pitcher. Yeah, everyone’s a bit partial…
“Anyway, this is my stop,” Miyuki says before climbing the stairs and stopping mid-way to look at him, “and I’m not partial.” The catcher adds before continuing back to go to his room.
Right then and there, Yoichi badly wants to laugh out loud but tries to suppress it. In the end he lets out a chortle and wipes away a tear that was forming in his eyes because of how funny and ridiculous their captain is.
Right, not partial, keep telling yourself that captain.
He thought as he carefully closes the door to Room 5 while still wiping away another tear forming in his eyes.
Laying on his bed, it finally registered. Aren’t they acting like they’re going on a game or something serious? Like they’re doing a military operation or whatnot. Yoichi can’t help but snort at the way they’re acting.
Well, he already knows chaos will reign in the kitchen for these upcoming three days. He just hopes that the managers and kitchen ladies will be more forgiving and kind to them when everything is done and finished. Seriously, and all because of their beloved southpaw pitcher’s birthday.
But really, they’re acting too serious about this. They’re only baking a cake, how hard could it be?... yeah… how hard could it be…
Oh boy is he about to learn that.
The next day, Yoichi and the first-string finds out that baking is one thing, decorating is another.
They haven’t even passed the baking part…
Eijun is confused. Really confused. Yesterday, his friends asked if he wanted to eat in the school cafeteria rather than eating at the baseball team’s dining room which is all good and well for him. In fact, he was very happy to do so, but he won’t lie that he is kind of weirded out. Especially since even Kanemaru of all people, the one who is constantly monitoring him there and insisting that he ate there was also saying that he should eat outside. He knows it’s just a small thing but he can’t help but feel like there’s something more.
He decides to shrug it off, it’s probably just him overthinking things. Eijun finishes his morning run a little early and makes his way to the baths when he sees his senpais making their way there as well. The pitcher scrunches his nose. They seem… cautious? But they also look like in a hurry? Huh?
“Good morning Senpai!” He loudly calls out and he doesn’t know if his eyes are playing tricks at him or did his senpais really just stiffen hearing his voice. Eijun frowns and walks closer to them, “Senpai?” a little more timid and confused.
Kuramochi-senpai slightly looks back to greet him, a half smile on his face, “Yo. Sawamura.” His other two senpais, Miyuki-senpai and Zono-senpai, who’s Kunramochi-senpai is with, also does the same. But all of them doesn’t face him fully.
Feeling worried, he tries to approach them closer but they all seem to flinch. He pouts, “Is something wrong?”
“Nope! Nothing at all!” his shortstop senpai says fast, a bit too fast as if panicked and lets out his signature hyena laugh but it seemed unnatural, a bit forced.
Still pouting, Eijun tries to have a better look at them but they seem to angle away their body as if to avoid his gaze. Are they hiding something?
“Senpai, you can look at me you know?” he says, waiting to see if his senpais will do so. They don’t.
A moment of silence. Then Miyuki-senpai at least tries to face him, “Ah Sawamura, you finished your run?”
Eijun slowly nods, trying to see if there’s anything unusual or anything he can see that his senpais seems to be hiding. “Yeah… I was about to go take a bath before going to the dining room…” he says slowly and he swears he saw them flinch at the mention of their eating place.
“Y-Yeah?” Did Miyuki-senpai seriously just stutter? Eijun slowly nods again.
“Where’s Kominato? or Kanemaru? Aren’t they with you?” he hears Zono-senpai say but he’s not even facing him. Eijun tries not to deepen his frown. What’s up with them? He’s seriously confused.
“They wanted to buy a drink.” He answers, “But when I finished they still haven’t come back, I figured that I should probably take a bath and we’ll just meet at the dining room for breakfast-“
“Don’t!” his three senpais shout in unison. What?
“Huh?”
“We mean- is- uh…”
“No- What we were trying to say is-“
“We didn’t mean that- You- Not that-“
This is probably a rare sight. Eijun is witnessing his team captain and his other two vice-captains jumbling their words. What are his senpai saying? All of them are currently talking in unison and Eijun doesn’t understand a thing. Their faces looked panicked and worried.
On a normal day, he might have though how funny this sight is, but it’s not a normal day, at least he feels like it’s not. All Eijun could feel right now is utter confusion and nothing else. On the bright side, his three senpais finally faced him. And they’re covered in… White… powder? Is that baby powder maybe?... Oh… he takes a whiff of the smell, flour?...
“Is that… flour?” he blurts out and instantly, his senpais stopped talking. He tilts his head, “Is it?”
They don’t answer, his three senpais are just looking at him wide-eyed.
A minute of silence.
Zono-senpai clears his throat, first one to talk… or try to at least, “W-well… well it’s…”
“Senpai-!“
A loud voice calls through the hall and it gets his and his other three senpais attention. It’s Kanemaru. His expression seems surprised as Eijun faces the blonde. He can’t help but pout again, What’s up with people being surprised or flinching when they see or face him?
“What… are you doing here?” Kanemaru ask as he slowly walks closer. Wait isn’t he supposed to be getting a drink with Harucchi?
“What do you mean?” Eijun scrunches his nose.
“You were running…”
“I finished early. I was going to wait for you guys but you didn’t come after a long time- Wait-” He cuts himself noticing the familiar white covering his classmate’s pants. “Is that also flour?”
What are they even doing with that much flour?
The blonde flinches, and if Eijun is being honest, he’s getting annoyed how everyone seems to flinch at his words. “Ah… well…” Kanemaru can only say before his captain talks over.
“The flour in the kitchen was scattered. We were all in the way and got covered in it.” He faces his captain, brows raised and Miyuki-senpai is grinning. A little strained maybe?...
Eijun takes another look at his senpai’s clothes and his classmate’s, “That much?”
Miyuki-senpai nods, “Yep.” Popping the ‘p’.
“Really?”
What were they even doing in the kitchen?
“Yeah, so no need to concern yourself bakamura!” Kuramochi-senpai says followed up by his signature hyena laugh. Again, why does it feel a little forced.
“Eijun.” A calm voice joins them.
“Oh, good morning, Furuya…” he greets then checks if the taller pitcher had flour on him too. He squints, A little on his hair…?
“Hey… is that-“
“Let’s take a bath.” Furuya interrupts before he can finish and he can’t help but feel slightly annoyed.
Kanemaru pushes his back making him walk, “Yeah, c’mon, let’s take a bath. Kominato is waiting for us at the back of the school.”
“At the back of the school?” he questions, not at the dining room? Come on, the mess should be clean by now right? Even if it isn’t he’ll happily help and it’s only a minor thing!
“Yes, stop questioning already! Kominato is waiting for us.” The blonde says behind him as he pushes him towards the changing room to the baths with Furuya nodding before tailing them. He lets out a low ‘alright’ but after, he again swears he hears his senpais let out a deep exhale before entering the baths.
Really… what just happened?
Haruichi already expected that things won’t be going as smoothly as they thought but still, he didn’t expect it to be this bad.
The pinkette already had an intuition that Eijun was getting slightly suspicious. The first day of them asking him to eat out was well received and the brunette didn’t ask further questions but today, which is their second day, it seems that Eijun has a lot on his mind.
Yoh-san had told him what had happened earlier that morning and he’s not going to lie, a little of his Kominato genes had slipped out and the third year seemed a little regretful after he told him. It’s not like he can blame them though because he’s also party to blame. (Wow, a Kominato admitting his fault, crazy right?) He shouldn’t have left Eijun unattended like that. While it was true that he and Kanemaru was only going to get a drink, they got side-tracked when they saw a Furuya covered in flour from top to bottom coming from the dining room door. Are they throwing flour at each other there or what?
Haruichi took pity and helped Furuya change his clothes and clean up, preparing him when he asks Eijun to take a bath while Kanemaru went on the kitchen to check if everything’s okay. He hasn’t taken to consideration that Eijun might finish up early. After he helped Furuya, he came to check their ace pitcher but his running figure was nowhere to be seen. When he came to check the dorms, Zono-senpai, Miyuki-senpai, and Yoh-san were standing at the front of the changing rooms to the baths and well, you already know what happened. He would have won a record with how fast he bathed when Eijun was done. He needed to catch up to the lie Kanemaru made on the fly right? Good thing Eijun believed his excuse of ‘It was hot’ when he had questioned why he was sweating so much when he arrived to meet him.
It’s lunch right now and Haurichi, Eijun, Furuya, Kanemaru and Toujou are eating at the rooftop of their school to change the scenery a bit. They had breakfast at the back of the school earlier with him bringing their food (and almost tripping on his way but he was running okay?). Haruichi glances at Kanemaru before continuing to take a bite at his chopsticks that carries rice. They have to be cautious now, it’s clear as day that their oblivious ace is getting a little suspicious with their antics. He, after all, doesn’t want the surprise they made for his best friend to be spoiled and he wants his dear friend to feel that they, the baseball team, appreciate him with their simple gesture of baking a cake and surprising him for his birthday. He deserves that much from them at least.
For now, everything seems normal, but he can’t help but glance at his brunette friend that seems to have a lot on his mind, so much that he’s eating way too slowly.
“Eijun-kun.” Haruichi calls, “Something on your mind?”
The brunette pitcher seems to be a little reluctant, Haruichi reassures him, “You can tell us.”
Eijun lets out a sigh and looks at him, “It’s just… aren’t the senpais acting a bit… weird?”
It’s barely noticeable but the pinkette’s eyes twitched by a fraction. He takes a short glace at Kanemaru who was already looking at him a bit panicked while chewing his rice. He faces Eijun, “What do you mean?” he asks, acting as if he doesn’t know anything. Good thing his genes didn’t fall short on acting.
“Hmm…” Eijun seems to ponder over it, “I can’t exactly… tell… I just feel like something is wrong you know? Like, they’re hiding something?”
He isn’t wrong… really, Eijun is a lot more perceptive and smart that what people give him credit for.
Haruichi opens his mouth to reassure him but Eijun perks up and faces the silently panicking and still eating Kanemaru, “What’s up with all the flour earlier?”
Right, the fiasco that happened at the front door of the changing room to the baths earlier.
Kanemaru takes his time to chew and swallow, “We told you, baka, flour was scattered and we happened to be in the way.”
Ah yes, the lie that Miyuki-senpai made on the fly as well.
The brunette scrunches his nose, silent, as if thinking about how could that happened, and just like Haruichi though, Eijun blurts out, “How? What were you guys even doing?”
Kanemaru looks at him, “Don’t try to think about it too much, your head will hurt.” Going for the teasing route to rile him up and forget about it huh?
Eijun only shouts in indignation, “I’m serious!” and continues to pout, “What’s up with that?” he asks, persistent to know the answer. Well… he isn’t Eijun-kun if he isn’t being stubborn.
“Sawamura,” Toujou calls, joining the conversation hoping to help Kanemaru, “don’t worry about it too much, it was just an accident.”
The brunette pitcher looks at Toujou, “You were there?”
The center fielder smiles and nods. Though still, Eijun doesn’t seem he’ll let it go, “But-“
“Eijun-kun.” He calls using his Kominato voice, interrupting the brunette before he can continue. “Let’s leave it alone why don’t we?” He follows up with his infamous smile that got Eijun to call him ‘Dark Angel Haruichi’, that should be enough make Eijun leave the topic alone.
“Eep! A-Alright.” The brunette says as he salutes to him and continues to eat his food. Mission Accomplished.
He glances around to see Kanemaru and Toujou looking at him slightly terrified but after recovering they nod in thanks before continuing to eat as well. He glances at Furuya who seems to be dozing off before he can even finish his food. The second baseman shakes the tall pitcher, “Furuya, finish your food.”
It seems to work as Furuya seems to wake up and continues to eat. Haruichi felling accomplished, decides to continue and finish his food as well. He looks at the brunette pitcher and he seems to be in thought again while chewing. Did something more happened?
He nudges the eating brunette on the side, when their eyes met, on a gentle tone, he asks, “Something on your mind again?”
Eijun looks at him then switches his gaze to the eating Furuya on his other side, “Hey, was that flour on you head earlier? This morning I mean, was it also flour?”
Wait does he mean… did they miss a spot earlier?
He glances to the center fielder and third baseman who has the same panicked eyes.
From in a daze, Furuya seemed to have been woken up by the question. “Hm? No.” Okay, the response was normal.
The brunette seems a little doubtful, “It isn’t?”
“Probably just seeing things.” The dark haired pitcher says before continuing to eat. That seemed to convince as he doesn’t question the taller pitcher further. Just as Haruichi was about to release a breath of relief, another question was asked by the brunette.
“What about you guys?”
Us?
“What about us?” Haruichi asks looking at Eijun but the pitcher just looks at his food.
Eijun takes a chunk of rice using his chopsticks and eats. He chews, taking his time as if think how to word things, “I mean- You guys are acting… in a way, a bit weird too.”
“Weird how?”
“I don’t know- I just-“ he watches Eijun scrunch up his nose again, seemingly having a hard time how to say or word things.
“Just-“ The brunette tries again but in the end, he just ended up saying, “It’s nothing! Never mind.” And tries to laugh it off but Haruichi can see him deflating. The thing is, as much as he wants things to be kept a secret, he can’t handle and he doesn’t want to see his friend deflating like this.
The pinkette pushes again, “It’s not ‘nothing’. Go on, what is it?”
Eijun purses his lips, “You guys… aren’t hiding something from me right?”
There’s a pang of guilt in his chest, he tries to play it off, “No, we aren’t. Don’t worry. We better finish up, class is about to start.”
Eijun smiles at him bright, seemingly happy and satisfied with his answer and continues to hurriedly eat his rice.
I’m sorry Eijun-kun. Don’t worry, it’s for a good reason. We promise we’ll make it up to you after.
Eijun just finished bathing and is on his way to the dining room when Okumura meets him at the door. He gives him a big smile and raises his hand, “Oh! Okumura-shounen! Why aren’t you inside? Come! Come! Let us have dinner!”
Before getting close to the door, the first year suddenly goes in front of him. Surprised by the action, Eijun takes a step back. Eep! What was that for?!
He looks at his kouhai and tilts his head confused, “What’s wrong? Aren’t you hungry?”
The first year growls before saying, “Senpai, let’s eat at Kominato-senpai’s room.”
Eh???
“Huh? What do you mean-“
A calm voice cuts him off, “Eijun.” Not only flinching, what’s up with people interrupting him!
He looks at the direction where the voice is and sees the dark haired pitcher standing in the hall. “Furuya?”
“Let’s eat,” is the only thing he says before getting dragged by the hand by the taller pitcher and the younger catcher following from behind.
What is going on!?
“Hey, Furuya, the dining room is right there…” he says pointing to the other direction they’re going right now.
The taller pitcher merely hums in acknowledgement and continues to drag him to what looks like… Wait, are we seriously eating at Harucchi’s and Zono-senpai’s room?!
“Isn’t that a bit…”
“We’re here.” Furuya says as they stop at the front of Haruichi’s room.
Furuya knocks twice and after a few shuffles inside, the door is opened by a first year. Eijun looks at the first year with questioning eyes, Eh? Asada? What are you doing here?
Furuya says a low ‘hello’ before stepping inside the room, Eijun tries to retaliate “O-oi!” but was ignored and dragged inside the room.
“Eijun-kun!” Haruichi greets as he pats a vacant place beside him.
He mumbles, “Sorry for intruding…” before sitting beside Haruichi and Furuya on the other side of the pinkette.
Looking around, there are a lot of food on the floor. Did they planned this ahead of time? He also sees a big rice cooker near the outlet. Guess they’re not forgetting that three bowls a meal… not that he’s complaining. Everything is organized. The food is on the floor and plates are stacked on one side ready to be used and chopsticks beside it. Joining them are mostly first years and second years who he’s the closest with. The people in the room are basically in a circle right now. With the order from Eijun’s right is Haruicchi, Furuya, Toujou, Kanemaru, Yui, Mogami, Asada, Seto, Okumura.
In unison, they chanted, “Thank you for the food!” before digging in.
Eijun isn’t going to deny that he was a bit reluctant, but the food was so good he couldn’t help himself but eat until his heart’s content.
Amidst eating and all the chewing, Eijun still can’t wrap his head around the things that are happening right now. The questions in his head are piling up. What are they doing here? Shouldn’t they be eating at the dining room with everyone else? Where’s Maezono-senpai? Is he okay with this? Where’s the other third years? So confusing!
Finally, he pushes back his nerves that he didn’t know he had and asks, “Isn’t this a bit too much? Shouldn’t we eat with everyone else in the cafeteria?” he chomps the rice on the chopsticks.
They stopped and everyone in the room looked at him. Why does this make me nervous? It was a perfectly normal question right?
The first to talk was Okumura who’s on his left, “Don’t worry, senpai. The others know.”
Eijun raises his brow at his kouhai’s statement. “They know?”
“Don’t worry too much, Sawamura-senpai,” Asada chimes in, reassuring him, “Kuramochi-senpai and the other third years are just a little busy.”
He scrunches his nose, Busy?
Still, that doesn’t answer his primary question though. “But still, why are we eating here?”
This time, Kanemaru answers, “The cafeteria is a bit too…” a pause, “…rough right now.”
That certainly confused Eijun more, he tilts his head to the side, “Isn’t it always?”
Silence.
“It’s a lot more than usual.” Toujou adds.
Huh? A lot more than usual?
“In any case,” Harucchi interrupts, “It’s a little busy there right now, the senpais said we should eat out here for now. Let’s just enjoy this for now, Eijun-kun.”
“Don’t worrsy, Sawamura-senpai, I’m also fine with this!” chimes Mogami, the first year that Haruichi and Zono-senpai also shares the room with.
Now that he thought about it, he guesses it’s fine if the senpais and the owners of the room are fine with it. He does miss eating in a small group like this and plus, he gets to chat with them without any other people that may interrupt them and there is no loud chatter in the background. He gives in and brightly smiles at the second baseman, “Yeah, okay!”
After they finished, he said his goodnight to his friends and walked back to room 5 alone. He asked if Asada wanted to tag along but the first year megane insisted that he’ll stay a little longer to help. Eijun had offered to help too but Haruichi insisted that he should go back and take a rest.
If Eijun were being honest, while he liked eating in a much smaller group and in a less loud environment, he misses eating with his other teammates. Sure it has only been two days, but for two days he hasn’t eaten in the dining room with his teammates! He misses the rowdiness and loudness of the baseball team when eating. Or when everyone is laughing at something or when they just talk about general stuff. The cafeteria filled with baseball idiots like him may be rowdy and loud but he loves it that way.
While walking back, something finally settles in. Are they… keeping me away from the dining room?
Suddenly, every weird action of his friends made sense. Eating behind the school, the rooftop, dorm room. Insisting to eat anywhere else besides the baseball team’s dining area.... but why? That seems to be the only question he just can’t find an answer to… are they hiding something from him there?
He shakes his head, no way right? What could they even be possibly hiding there? He takes a deep breath to clear his head.
Well regardless, he’s sure they should be back to normal tomorrow right? It’s been going on for two days… so they should right? He sure hope.
After all, the day after tomorrow is his birthday.
Yep, nothing to worry about.
Yoichi doesn’t know what to fucking do anymore. They are an absolute mess.
The kitchen looks like it’s just snowed in the place. There’s flour everywhere, eggs on counters and eggshells everywhere, ingredients and utensils everywhere. They’ve mixed salt and sugar at least twice. They’ve broken at least four bowls by now. He is questioning why the mixer is still even working. The whisk attachment is bent (he swears he doesn’t know what happened to that.) All the shit they’ve managed to bake—if you can even call it that—are either burnt to a crisp, hard as a rock, or it’s basically goo inside the cake. It’s a damn miracle the kitchen is not burning right now. At this rate, they won’t finish anything!
Yoichi rubs his temples with his flour covered fingers. What the fuck are we going to do?
Then there’s the thing that happened earlier. The shortstop doesn’t even want to remember Haruichi’s face when he told him the story. Well, past is past right? He’s sure Haruichi and the other second years had made sure to make Sawamura forget about the little encounter they had… right?
They’ve been trying so hard to keep it a secret from the southpaw pitcher. Keeping him away from the dining room at all cost because their ruckus in the kitchen could very well be heard in the dining room so no. They try to bake at every moment they have so they can’t afford having Sawamura in the dining area for now. Because as it proves, their baking skills suck. They’re going to need all the time they can have in the kitchen. Luckily, their Coach had agreed to hold any meetings they have on the field for the days their plan is in action. Bless Nabe’s soul for asking the coach that request. Brave soul indeed. Hopefully, their ace believes whatever excuse the second or first years gives him when they ate at Haruichi’s dorm room.
He shakes his head, now’s not the time to ponder whether their idiot ace forgot about their encounter or not and he believes their excuse or not, priority right now is the cake. He stretches his hand as if getting ready for a battle and looks at Shirasu and Nori who are looking at the oven to see if their attempt number—oh fuck it, they’ve made so many attempts that he already lost count—If their recent attempt, which is in the over right now is successful. Please, I swear to not cuss again if this cake is a decent one.
TING!
Both Shirasu and Nori each take a mitten. Shirasu opens the oven while Nori takes out the cake. Immediately, Yoichi and Miyuki, who was squinting at the baking instructions, approaches Nori to check if it’s a successful one.
“It looks good enough…” Miyuki says as he examines its appearance.
Shirasu chimes over, “It’s brown. It sure looks cooked enough.”
Nori takes out a toothpick, “We should test it out to be sure.” He punctures the cake dead middle and when he lifts it up… nothing. Nothing is stuck to the toothpick! Oh my- Kuramochi wants to jump and just scream out of joy right now. Two days of baking and this is the first time they’ve come this close to an actual decent cake.
He shakes Nori up, “Take it out! Take it out!”
Miyuki hands Nori a knife, “It says here that after running that through the edges,” he looks at the cake while Nori runs it through, “when you flip it, it should easily come out of the mold.” Jeez, even Miyuki is happy. He sure as hell looks excited.
“Okay!” Nori says as he flips the mold. “It should come off right?”
Yoichi nods, eyes not leaving the upside down cake mold. “Yeah, this bastard says it should, so it better.”
Internally, they counted to three…
One…
Two…
Three…!
Nori lifts the mold up and flips it back up and…. Nothing.
There’s no cake on the plate. Oh. My. Fucking. It’s stuck on the mold!
Realization struck them like a bat was swung to their heads full force and the batter was fucking Coach Kataoka.
Breath in… Breath out… Breath in… Breath out… Stay calm.
“Hey… that wasn’t supposed to happen right?” he slowly asks and the catcher looks pale.
Miyuki shakes his head, “No… it’s not.” Slowly the catcher meets his eyes, then Nori, then Shirasu. Again, slowly he asks, “Did we grease this mold?”
Silence.
Well there’s your answer.
They all groan.
Yoichi wants to bang his head hard on the counter top right now.
“We can save it.” Shirasu says. And Yoichi wants to believe him because of how much conviction his voice carried. Maybe hope isn’t lost after all. “Right…?” the right fielder adds, the confidence in his voice evaporated. Nope, it’s all gone.
They did try to save it. And they failed.
One day. They have one more day.