Home Run Ch. 01

The playlist has a bunch of Billy Joel songs followed by a list of other songs he's never heard by name. He clicks on the first mystery song and immediately recognizes it as the opening to 'Laverne and Shirley'. Song after song it's all openings to American sitcoms.

This has to be a sick joke. There's just no way. This isn't the gift you give someone you never want to see again. It just isn't. He sets the gadget aside and opens the card. He reads over it carefully.

The card reads: "I don't know what I'm doing. Everyone else seems to know who they are and what they like, meanwhile I don't know if I like anything at all. I admire your confidence, how sure of everything you always are, but me? I'm not there yet. I don't know if I want to be there. I'm broken like that. I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused. I'll try not to lead you on in the future. Same time next week?"

It wasn't meant to be a goodbye. It became a goodbye because of something Katsu did. It was the cum thing, wasn't it? Or maybe the hickey? Yuma closes the card and tucks it somewhere safe. He cries himself to sleep as quietly as he can manage.

The next day is a Saturday. Most people Yuma's age would sleep in until their mother calls them down for breakfast. Yuma doesn't have that option. He startles awake at the sound of a song that used to be his favorite. It quickly becomes his least favorite song in all of music after foolishly making it the alarm on his phone. His love for the song can't overcome Yuma's hatred of alarm clocks.

He blinks himself awake and gets dressed enough to leave his capsule. Drearily shuffling in his socks to the communal kitchen upstairs to start up a pot of coffee. Despite not getting along terribly well with the other residents, they've come to a mutual understanding that they all pitch in to buy the coffee, and whoever wakes up first brews enough for everyone. On weekdays it's someone else, but on Saturdays it's always Yuma.

The coffee is warm in hand. Full of energy in both the scientific and caffeinated sense. It slowly brings him to a more coherent state of mind. Yuma recounts the events of the night before. The coffee sits heavy in his stomach. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell Jun about the whole gay thing. Yuma is stupid and impulsive like that. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!

The stupidity follows Yuma to work. Yes, that's right, the eighteen-year-old muddling his way through highschool has to work for a living. It's the downside of getting kicked out of his parents' house. More accurately, the down-er side as everything about the situation is very 'down'. It's not as bad as it could be. This place, as awful as it is, costs very little. The job itself isn't as bad as he thought it would be, either. It's a tourist trap retail job, so he meets a lot of Americans, Australians and Europeans on vacation. It's pretty dead when it's cold outside.

He arrives at the small shop at the corner of its block to find the lights are on. It's good news for him because that means Mika got there first and he doesn't need to take off his gloves in the cold to fumble with an even colder set of keys. The door opens with the taunting jingle of a bell.

"Mika-Chan" Yuma extends the vowel sounds in an almost whiny tone of voice. He stretches himself over the checkout counter, face down for dramatic effect.

"Katsu-Kun" Mika dials that whiny tone up to eleven to mock him.

"I've got a problem." Yuma stays slumped in defeat. His voice is muffled by the counter pressed up to his face.

"Already?" She sounds surprised at first. Yuma can hear the exact moment Mika remembers who the hell she's talking to. "Which one?"

"Shiro-San" Yuma peels himself from the counter, hanging his coat up in the back.

"As in Junichi Shiro?" Her confused expression is warranted. As far as she knows, Jun hasn't talked to Yuma since they got sent to different schools. She tilts her head skeptically.

Jun's name is Junichi? Good grief, he needs to catch up. "No, his dad." He rolls his eyes. "Of course it's Jun."

She raises both eyebrows, her mouth goes flat lined, and she looks to the side. She mumbles something about how she wouldn't question it if the father of the Shiro household had a problem with Yuma.

"Right, he's 'very traditional'." The only other thing Yuma knows about Jun's family is that his father is the president of some construction company.

"What's Juni's problem with you, anyway? Seriously, you don't talk. What could he possibly do to you?" She continues talking as she works on restocking a shelf. "I wouldn't let it get to you. He's just weird."

"You don't understand," Yuma grips the shelves on either side of Mika, putting himself at her eye level.

She turns around unphased. It's clear she has no fucks to give about Yuma 'trapping' her. She's far too comfortable being this close to Yuma's face, if he's being honest. "You're so dramatic."

"He's gorgeous, Mika-Chan." Yuma lets his head hang forward.

"And you're still?" She ducks out from under the trap and carries on without skipping a beat. She drags the box to the side with her and unloads the items onto the next shelf. "...You know."

"Yes." Mika is the only other person he's come out to of his own free will (other than his parents). He told her long before his parents suspected a thing. Partially because she's never been subtle about having a crush on him, but mostly because she's his friend and is cool enough to handle it. Yuma straightens up, putting a hand to his chest as if to clutch a set of pearls he'd never be able to afford. "Obviously."

"Of course," Mika huffs, breaking down the now empty box. Yuma knows she could ruin his life if she wanted to. She won't. Yuma knows she won't. She loves him, and she, as far as Yuma can tell, wants the people she loves to be happy. Even if it's not with her.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you are young." She curls the hair from her high ponytail around her fingers.

"And?"

"A girl can dream." She parts the ponytail in half, pulling each section in opposite directions to fix the elastic hair tie. She turns her head, whipping the fluffy strands behind her.

"Well, if dreams come true, I know where you live." Yuma winks and gets back to monitoring the door. No signs of anyone yet.

"Is that a threat?" She narrows her eyes at him with a devilish smile.

"Absolutely. Now back to Shiro-San."

"What about him?"

"He walked in on me with a guy. I think he's mad at me."

"You told him about your little crush?" Her jaw drops.

"No. Yes- kinda."

"Is he?"

"Oh, absolutely not. He wouldn't know attraction to any gender if it punched him in the penis."

"Yuma." Mika scoffs in offense. Katsu can't tell if she's upset about him calling privates by their names or at the sentiment behind it.

"What? Right 'down there', sorry. I'm getting tired of dancing around this stuff in conversation. Now, can we please stay on topic?"

"Go on."

"He knows I'm- yeah- but there's a big difference between knowing and seeing it firsthand. I'm worried he's never going to breathe in my direction ever again."

"If he's that put off by the..." She makes a gesture to the entirety of Yuma's body. "That... he's obviously not going to go out with you."

"Well, obviously, I can't make him like me back. I just..." Yuma looks up at the ceiling to keep from forming tears. "I miss having him as a friend, too. It was so simple, and I ruined it."

"You're really stupid." She pulls out her phone and starts typing something.

"I know. Don't remind me." He looks back to Mika, unamused.

"No, you need the reminder." She doesn't even look up from her phone. "I've got plans with him next week. You should come along."

"Plans?"

"You'll see." Is all Mika has to say on the matter before texting Yuma the time and address.

CHAPTER FOUR:

The following weekend Jun waits in the genkan wearing a dark red sweater with a hood and black dress pants. It's all soft and form fitting. It feels like pajamas, but formal. Business jammies of sorts. He fiddles with a hair tie between his fingers until he hears the buzzer go off. He pulls the door open to see- Yuma Katsu? "Uhm."

"Hi." Yuma smiles and waves. He looks stiff and underdressed for the weather. The blonde's cheeks and nose are red. His eyes never quite meet Jun. It's awkward to face him after seeing what Jun can only assume is Yuma's boyfriend. Shiro can tell by now his friend is gawking at the house. It's a recreation of classical architecture built with modern amenities and materials.

A moment of silence passes. Jun doesn't remember having Yuma over as a kid. How does he have his address? Jun smiles back to be polite. "Did you need something?"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the other day." Yuma rubs the back of his neck and looks at his feet."I'm sure you didn't want to see that. It wasn't planned. Just a one-night stand."

"Is that normal for you?" Jun is oddly relieved to hear Yuma is single.

"I wouldn't say normal. It's uh- I know it's not good for me." Yuma avoids eye contact.

"Why do it?"

"There's not a lot of other options."

"Well uh. Glad we got that cleared up." Jun awkwardly tries to change the subject. "I've got a movie date with Mika soon, I'm terribly sorry-"

"A date?" Yuma's eyes go wide. He looks upset to hear it. Maybe 'date' isn't the best choice of words in this context. It's not a date-date, it's a planned-date. There's nothing romantic about it, much to Mika's disappointment.

"Hey! Juni-Kun! Yuma-Kun!" A snowball hits Yuma in the back of the head.

"Hey!" Yuma shakes it off, turning around. He bends forward, packing a snowball in his raw hand. He winds up and pitches it like a baseball smack between Mika's eyes.

"Pweh!" She shakes the snow off her face and spits the ice out of her mouth. She wipes more of it off on her sleeve, laughing. "You two ready to go?"

Oh. She invited Katsu. Okay. That makes more sense. Mika runs up in her bright pink coat and black leggings.

"Almost" Jun quickly pulls a black coat off the hook and throws it on, closing the front door behind him. He looks up from the ground only to be met with a surprise hug from the girl. He doesn't hug back, but does nothing to pull away. This is pretty normal with Mika.

"So, what movie was it again?" Yuma coughs. Jun hopes he hasn't caught a cold on the way here. They all walk in the theater's direction. It's not far, less than a mile south from where Jun lives.

"It's the Twilight marathon."

"Really?" Yuma sounds less than impressed with the film choice. Why is he coming along, anyway?

"Jun's never seen it before." Mika giggles.

"I'm sure he's seen trash."

"Don't listen to him Juni, Twilight is fantastic." She turns to Jun, gushing about the film series as she pushes the theater doors open. What the fuck did Jun just get himself into?

"It's not. It's really not. Please tell me it's subbed and not dubbed."

"I don't know." Mika shrugs, dealing with the tickets. "You just said it's trash. I didn't think you'd care either way."

"I do care." Yuma insists as he continues to follow the group into the dark theater.

Jun listens to his friends bicker with a slight smile creeping its way to his face. "Does that make you a trash connoisseur?"

"No, it makes him a picky kabure."

"Hey, no, a kabure is someone obsessed with a culture they know nothing about. I actually know what I'm talking about." Yuma objects, blowing his bangs out of his face. Jun and Mika both laugh at this defense. Whether Yuma is right or wrong about any of his little fun facts about America is irrelevant. Neither of them know enough about the country to say for sure that he isn't full of shit.

Jun simply finds it hilarious that Yuma cares so much about the presentation of a movie he doesn't even like. He doubts the movies could be that bad. If they were truly awful, it wouldn't make sense for him to join him and Mika. Jun takes his seat to Mika's right, sinking into the cheap velvet chair in the back row. Yuma sits to the right of Jun, which is fine. Jun has no problem with it. Just because he's seen the man shirtless with a hickey and cum on his chest doesn't mean he can't be cool about this. Yuma's seating choice only raises an eyebrow, as it seems a given he should sit next to the girl that invited him.

The room feels dark and humid compared to the bright cold outside. Jun could fall asleep here easily if it weren't for the speakers blasting audio from behind. The sound of the movie is only ever interrupted by the sound of Yuma making fun of it. Only fifteen minutes into the movie Mika hisses at Yuma. "I sat through all thirty-something Marvel movies without saying a word. The least you can do is sit through my bad taste."

After that Jun doesn't hear another word from Yuma. Without the heckling, Jun is pretty immersed in the film. It's not a good movie, but movies don't have to be good to be entertaining. It's actually really interesting to him that he's not placing himself in Edward's shoes but rather Bella's. He can see Edward's appeal visually, anyway. All the characters leave much to be desired in personality especially in the first film. Even so, Edward is hot. In a sparkly, depressed, vampire way.

The opening title for the second film is way too long. He pulls his gaze away from the movie for a moment. Looking over to his right, Jun makes eye contact with Yuma. The blonde quickly averts his eyes and turns his head to watch the film, sitting up a little straighter. He can see Yuma swallow by the bobbing of his Adam's apple. Jun whispers as to not disturb other movie goers. "What was that?"

"Hm?" Yuma looks back at Shiro, slowly. It's difficult to tell in the dark, but he looks a little red. Katsu scratches just under his eye. "What was what?"

"You're acting weird." He chews the skin off his bottom lip out of habit. Katsu's eyes look to Jun's mouth, lingering there for a moment. Jun feels more self-conscious about it, knowing that someone is watching him do it. Jun forces himself to stop messing with it.

"I'm a weird guy." Yuma wets his own lips and stops breathing, just enough for Jun to notice. His chest expands with a deep inhale.

"This is weird even for you."

"Sorry." Yuma stares blankly at his knees.

Yuma looks so stiff and uncomfortable. He has this whole time. Nothing at all like the relaxed cool guy persona he'd hung out with before. Jun places his hand over Katsu's on the shared armrest. "Are you okay?"

"Uh-" Katsu looks at the hand and blinks for a moment. His mouth is slightly agape. His gaze trails up, meeting Shiro's eyes with this silent pleading. "I- Are you?"

"Am I what?" Jun watches in confusion as Yuma bites his lip and looms over him. Their foreheads almost touch, Jun can feel this spark of static electricity where Yuma's lips ghost over his own. There's no contact, only the feeling of Yuma's hot breath near his mouth. His breath gets caught in his throat. Yuma remains that close, as if waiting for something. Jun swallows, thick, his face feels hot and his dick- Oh. It's hard. His friend's eyes stare right into his own, so needy.

Jun's heart beats in his ears, his palms sweat. He doesn't know what comes over him. It feels right. In the moment he's excited about it, he wants it. All of it. He doesn't know entirely what 'it' is yet. He feels Yuma huff and start to pull away. He took too long gawking in shock. His hand grabs desperately at his best friend's collar and pulls him back down. His mind races and his body does the unthinkable.

Jun brings his lips firmly to the other man's. Yuma hums, melting into it, bringing a hand to cup Jun's cheek and brush the hair out of his face. It's slow and careful. The kiss deepens. Familiar hands run down his back. It feels so dizzyingly good. The butterflies in his stomach make him feel sick.

Yuma breaks the kiss with a soft gasp. Jun hasn't remembered how to breathe. It can't be. What the fuck is wrong with him? He's in public. He sucks in air, in and out, yet he's suffocating. Choking on the realization. He feels Yuma's lips on his own again and he turns away, shaking. "No, stop."

Jun has Yuma at 'no'. Immediately, his friend backs up and apologizes. The words wash over him, meaningless. His friend's furrowed brows are painful to look at. "I- I can't do this. Not here."

"Wanna bail?" Yuma asks. Jun nods in response. This movie sucks anyway.

Katsu hooks an arm under his elbow, tugging him out of his seat. The trip from the theater to the blonde's shitty coffin apartment washes over him like clouds in the sky. A sky that is painfully and undeniably blue.

They arrive in the familiar confines of Yuma's horrible apartment, eager as can be. Jun sits in Yuma's lap, chests flush, bulges pressed against each other. Shiro puts his hair up in a ponytail, showing off his earrings.

He rolls his hips into the other experimentally. That's what it is at this stage, experimentation and reward. Seeing what feels good, what hurts and what's just boring.

Jun doesn't know what he's doing or how gay sex works. He pulls away from the kisses every once in a while to see if his partner is having a good time. Katsu looks so absolutely thrilled about all of this that it's hard to tell. He doesn't seem as sensitive. So far from Jun's perspective, everything feels right with Yuma's powerful arms holding him tight.

"Is this why you didn't want to hang out?" Katsu mumbles between kisses, obviously feeling chatty as he grinds against Jun.

Jun hums, "Felt wrong hanging out when you had a boyfriend."

"What?" Yuma kisses along Jun's jaw. Every soft touch feels electric. It's hard to sit still and let him. His breath quickens and hitches at the hot, wet moisture on his neck.

"It didn't make sense to me either. I don't know."

"Sounds like jealousy," Yuma hums into the crook of Jun's neck. Nipping gently at the places that make his heart beat faster.

"Maybe it was." It would make more sense than any description of his feelings he could come up with. Yuma leans forward with an arm around Jun's back, easing him down onto the bed.

Yuma takes his hands off Jun for only a second, whipping his shirt off and throwing it behind him. Jun bites his lip. He's so broad and lean, he can't help but reach his hands out to touch. It's firm yet retains a human amount of squish. His face turns red as he notices himself ogling.

Yuma's eyes go half lidded with a cocky smile. He flexes on purpose, more than happy to show off. "Like what you see?"

"Uh-huh" He looks up at Katsu with eyes that yearn for something. Jun doesn't quite know what that something is. He knows it's sex, but that's not terribly specific. Katsu puts his hands under Jun's shirt and Shiro grabs at the hem, pulling it back down. As much as he loves seeing Katsu shirtless, he himself is not ready to show off his own tiny figure.

Yuma takes the hint and leaves the shirt alone. He leans down, putting his mouth close to the shorter man's ear. "Can I touch you?"

Jun blinks confused, "Is this not touching?"

Yuma huffs in amusement. "You know what I mean."

"Right," Jun agrees, too embarrassed to admit that he is completely lost. "Can you explain anyway?"

His partner laughs at him. How charming. "Are you a virgin?"

"Yes. I mean- no-" Jun is a virgin. This shouldn't be surprising, considering the iron grip his parents hold on his life. "Is virginity a good thing or a bad thing?"

"You are a virgin." It's not phrased as a question. Katsu just knows. He doesn't seem to care either. It's a little annoying. Why ask if he doesn't care? "It's not a big deal. Don't worry about it."

"Worrying is all I'm good at." The last thing he wants is to give Yuma a bad time because he doesn't know what he's doing. What if he does so poorly in bed that Yuma gives up on him? He furrows his brows.