THE SANDLOT | m. kazuya

10.

THE SANDLOT !
CHAPTER TEN

katsu has grown used to sawamura randomly showing up at his dorm with the sole purpose of creating mischief. whether it be hiding kuramochi's controllers in retaliation for ripping his favorite copy of some manga (katsu could only watch kuramochi place sawamura into a painful headlock once he found out, idly ignoring his pleas for help.) or devouring masuko's chocolate pudding just cause he felt like it. sometimes he would even pull katsu out from under his duvets just so he could show him a new pitch he supposedly learned. keyword supposedly.

so when sawamura sent him an email asking for him to come out to the field katsu all but bolted out of his bed.

the brunet was never on his phone, kuramochi mostly being the one making use of it for some reason. not to mention it was nearing midnight, so what the hell was he doing out so late? the dormitory was practically a ghost town, which made sense since they were having a practice match early in the morning. a match sawamura is participating in. why did he have to be the mom friend?

katsu jogs down the empty corridors, ignoring the jarring silence surrounding him. the only audible noise being the whirring of the vending machines and the continuous chirps of crickets. yet it was still quiet enough for his tinnitus to start acting up.

he swears he'll start seeing gray hairs in his scalp by the end of his first year.

his racing heart steadily slows down once he spots sawamura laying on the grassy slope of a nearby hill, his trusty tire settled snuggly by his hip. "what are you doing out here so late?" katsu quietly asks once he settles down, trying his best to ignore the way the blades of grass felt against his bare legs. "i couldn't sleep." the volume of his voice was softer than usual, but it didn't come as a surprise. the sun has to set too.

"do you miss home?" that sudden question catches him off guard, but he tries his best not to let it show. "of course i miss home. i miss my parents. i miss my friends. i even miss the old lady that chased me down the street with her cane." a little snort leaves the brunet. there's shuffling from beside him and soon he feels warmth spreading on the exposed skin of his arms and legs. sawamura has glued himself to his side. "i miss home too." they lay in comfortable silence, peering up at the night sky and its glowing moon. even here he can easily pinpoint aquila, the familiar constellation he often studied as he fell asleep.

"katsu... do you genuinely believe i'm getting better at pitching?" there's a tinge of insecurity in the way he hesitantly asks. it makes him wonder how long he's been questioning his abilities. katsu grabs a fistful of grass and tugs on it, yanking its roots from the damp ground. he then spreads out his fingers, watching them slip lazily from between the gaps. "well you practice hard everyday, don't you? results don't present themselves immediately but your body will... simply know. you'll know it in the way the ball feels in your grip. you'll know it once the mound molds itself to comfort you. and you'll definitely know when pitching comes to you as easy as breathing."

katsu gives him time to mull over his words, blinking away the beginnings of fatigue in his eyes. "....thanks." he playfully nudges sawamura, purposely digging his knobby elbow into the supple skin near his rib cage. "what are friends for, eijun?" it felt weird saying his first name out loud but the brunet has been saying his since the start. heaving himself to his feet, he dusted off the non-existent dirt on his sleeping clothes. "c'mon you big oaf. you need to be well prepared to blow the knickers off our opponents tomorrow!"

"OF COURSE! THIS SAWAMURA EIJUN PROMISES HE'LL DO HIS VERY BEST."

"shhhh! eijun you're being too loud!!"

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um hello i'm back
this chap is also so short i'm sorry- 💀

i took a much-needed break from writing and caught up with a bunch of mangas/animes and just recently i decided to reread daiya but in spanish this time and well it's been a trip so far but it also helped me get a tiny bit of motivation to update this story.

anyways this chapter is an indicator that sawamura will flail and stumble a lot just like in canon- but not a lot?¿ since he has katsu there for him and if it wasn't clear katsu officially became his pillar of support here someone he can confide in since he really didn't have anyone to- at least to me so yeah #devastation.

p.s. thank u so much for 2k reads
when i first published this story i wasn't expecting much attention but i was wrong 🥺 thank u all for supporting and reading the sandlot ❤️