Title: Apologies
Fandom: Ookiku Furikabutte
Pairings: IzuMihaTaji and IzuMiha
Characters: Izumi Kousuke, Tajima Yuuichirou, Mihashi Ren
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Prompt/Summary: Oofuri Rarepair Week Day 5 - Reconciliation: They knew they shouldn’t have gone off on him like that, but now they had to face the consequences of their actions.
Notes: Partner story of “Happy.”
The moment Mihashi had run out of the door at the back of their classroom while clearly holding back tears, Izumi realized just how badly he and Tajima had screwed up. Both of them immediately took off after him, but by the time they made it out into the hallway, their boyfriend was long gone. The pair looked at each other and nodded, wordlessly deciding to split up and search for him. Before Izumi could even react, Tajima, who was visibly distressed by the situation, shot down the hall.
“If I find him, I’ll send you a message,” Izumi called out to the third baseman, receiving only a wave of the hand as acknowledgement that the older boy had heard him. He took off in the opposite direction, straight out the door at the end of the hallway. He would search the entirety of the school grounds if he needed to. He and Tajima shouldn’t have spoken so harshly to their teammate. Out of everyone, they knew best just how timid he was. Now they were paying the price for their mistake.
Izumi’s first thought was, of course, to check the practice field and the surrounding areas. He checked absolutely every spot he believed Mihashi could be hiding; unfortunately, the boy was in none of them. Making sure to keep his head on a swivel, he jogged back across the campus. When the school’s detached buildings came into his line of vision, he came to a halt and contemplated the area. There were plenty of secluded spots along the buildings, providing him with enough of a reason to check.
Not even a few seconds after walking into the trees, a tiny figure came bounding forward, colliding with the center fielder. Izumi toppled over backward, the other person being dragged down on top of him. The first thought that entered his mind was that the person was extremely light and rather boney. As soon as he recognized the person, it became clear why.
“M-Mihashi?”
“Izumi...kun!” Mihashi hastily retreated from where he had landed, getting off of Izumi and standing back up. He offered a hand to his boyfriend, wanting to help him to his feet since he was the one who knocked him down.
Izumi accepted the offered hand, and let himself be pulled to his feet. It was then that he took in Mihashi’s disheveled appearance. His clothes were heavily wrinkled and covered in dirt and dust while his hair was littered with crushed bits of fallen leaves. The sight that caused him pain, though, was his face. Tear tracks as dry as a drained lake were clearly visible on his pale cheeks, leading from bloodshot eyes to his rounded jaw line. Never before had Izumi felt as much self-loathing as he did in that moment. He and Tajima were the cause of this.
He could feel Mihashi preparing to release his hand, but he refused to let go, sandwiching the pitcher’s heavily-calloused hand between his own slightly larger ones. Izumi’s head drooped forward, and he clenched his eyes shut tightly, trying to burn the previous sight into his mind. The same mistake would not be made again.
“Izumi-kun, I… I’m sor--” Mihashi’s apology was cut off abruptly as his hand was finally released and Izumi’s arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders.
“Don’t.” Izumi voice was muffled as he rested his face against one of his boyfriend’s shoulders and clung to him tightly. His entire body shook when Mihashi circled his own arms around the outfielder’s waist and buried his own face in the crook of his neck.
The warmth of the pitcher’s body enveloped him, and he almost regretted the moment he pulled away. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and suddenly jolted as he remembered that he promised to let Tajima know if he found their partner.
He pulled out his phone and quickly tapped out a message, letting the third baseman know where they were. As soon as he finished, he took one of Mihashi’s hands into his own and pulled him into the shade of one of the biggest trees in the wooded area. He sat down and tugged lightly on the other’s arm in order to pull him down. Once he situated the smaller boy between his legs and Mihashi had leaned back against him, he wound his arms loosely around his partner’s waist.
They sat in silence while awaiting Tajima’s arrival, both perking up the moment the sound of crunching grass filled their ears. The smallest member of their trio skidded to a halt in front of them, his slim chest expanding and contracting as he breathed heavily, taking in the sight of the one he had been desperately searching for. Izumi could easily tell that Tajima was having the same kind of reaction that he had several minutes earlier.
Moving forward briskly, the third baseman quickly settled himself into Mihashi’s lap, but instead of hugging him, he forced a frantic kiss against the blond’s slightly parted lips, startling him.
“Oi, Tajima!” Izumi exclaimed, having also been shocked by the sudden action. There was also the possibility that he was slightly jealous, having resisted the urge to do the exact same thing earlier.
When their mouths parted ways, Tajima apologized. Under the light of the mid-day sun, his mahogany eyes clearly reflected the pain he felt. Then came the apology that both of them needed to express.
“Sorry for going off on you like that earlier,” he began, leaning forward to press his face against Mihashi’s neck. “We shouldn’t have done that. We were complete dicks, and you didn’t deserve that.”
“But!” Mihashi spoke loudly and more confidently than they had ever heard from him before. “You only said those things because you were worried!! Because you c-care about me!”
“That may be…” Izumi replied hesitantly, his embrace tightening as he remembered Mihashi’s face when he ran out of the classroom earlier. “But that doesn’t excuse what we did.”
A heavy silence fell between them, and before any of them could think of what to say next, the school’s bell rang, signaling that their lunch period had ended. Begrudgingly, they began their journey back to their classroom. Before they entered the main building again, Mihashi suddenly stopped, causing the other two to halt in their tracks as well.
“I can’t... promise I’ll never do it again.”
Both boys sighed simultaneously at his proclamation. Tajima ruffled his hair and Izumi placed a hand on his shoulder while he spoke.
“We know. Just… promise us you’ll try to be more careful next time.”
“I can do that,” Mihashi replied with a nod and a nervous, wobbly half-smile. “Thank you for w-worrying about me.”
At that, Tajima and Izumi looked at each other, massive grins spreading across their faces as they spoke together.
Title: Distance
Fandom: Ookiku Furikabutte
Pairings: One-sided IzuMiha and Implied TajiMiha
Characters: Izumi Kousuke, Mihashi Ren, Tajima Yuuichirou
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Prompt/Summary: Oofuri Rarepair Week Day 2 - Pining: Even though he’s in the same class, Izumi feels like his relationship with Mihashi isn’t as strong as Tajima’s.
Notes: A bit of a twist on some of the events of chapter 122.
Izumi had always known that there was a gap between his relationship with Mihashi and Tajima’s relationship with him. The way they could communicate with each other almost wordlessly and the way his perverted teammate could understand Mihashi’s broken sentences easier than he could were evidence of that. Unfortunately, he had never noticed just how big that gap was until his first visit to the third baseman’s house.
Learning that they spent Mondays together stung a bit, but he already suspected the two of them spent more time with each other outside of club activities and class. They were best friends. Everyone knew it, including him. But the moment Izumi heard them call each other by their first names, he knew the distance between them was far more than he initially thought.
A dull pain pierced through his chest as he realized that Mihashi wasn’t even referring to Tajima by his full first name. It was a nickname. Not Yuuichirou. Yuu-kun. He hoped the bitterness that he felt wasn’t showing on his face as much as he thought.
Please don’t leave me out.
“I’m Kou-chan. It’s my nickname.” Damn. If that didn’t sound desperate, he didn’t know what did. “Kousuke is also alright.”
How did he manage to make that sound even more desperate? His actual given name was “also alright?” Smooth. Really smooth. The outfielder wanted to bash his head against a wall until he forgot about this.
“So Izumi-kun is Kousuke…” Izumi froze in place, his heart thumping so strongly that he thought it might actually pop out of his chest. He could feel the blood rush to his cheeks. Quickly turning his head away, he covered his face with his hands, knowing that it was a very visible shade of some colour between pink and red. How could Mihashi calling him by his first name affect him this much? The only thing he knew for certain was that he wanted to hear it again. He coughed and turned back to look at his classmate.
“S-s-s-sorry… K-Kou-chan?” Mihashi asked nervously, misinterpreting Izumi’s reaction as dislike for what he called him. The pitcher took a small step back, trembling slightly.
Hearing Mihashi call him by his nickname would have been wonderful if it wasn’t for the reaction that went with it. His heart sank, and he bit the inside of his lower lip. He knew he shouldn’t think about it because Mihashi was always timid like that, but to see him cowering away because of him was disheartening.
He’s never afraid of Tajima.
Izumi shook his head roughly, trying to get that awful thought out of his head. He shouldn’t compare himself to Tajima in that subject. Tajima was that guy on the team that everyone could get along with because of his abnormal friendliness. He would be the first to admit that his teammate was more friendly than himself. He always thought the pitcher was comfortable around him, though. Was he mistaken in that assumption?
Title comes from a song on drunk driving called The Year Summer Ended in June by Misery Signals, which I only looked up after I'd finished. Honestly too tired to come up with one of my own this time... (≖﹏≖ԅ)
