The Progression of All Things Exclusive

Summary:

The road (to hell) is paved with good intentions.

Notes:

Written for Ao3 Windup and Pitch oofuri fic exchange for 1010nabulation livejournal.

For the prompt: Abe and Mihashi are a couple, but lately Mihashi has been feeling like maybe Abe doesn't like him anymore (which isn't true). Tajima notices something is up and wants details! Maybe in the course of "cheering Mihashi up" Tajima and Mihashi end up having a little illicit fun? And Abe finds out? Run with it, dear author, I'm along for the ride and don't really care where it ends up! Happy ending optional. :)

I greatly enjoyed writing this, I hope you like it! A big shout out to Pluma_Desatada for the Beta.

To Abe it had been the natural progression of things. At some point during camp, in between being pushed uphill and preparing breakfast together, Abe had finally, consciously, ended his period of denial. The problem with being too smart is that, while most people have automatic defense mechanisms against accepting reality, you had no such luxuries.

By the end of the match with Bijou he knew he was in deep shit, and he wasn't particularly thinking about his knee.

Talking to Mihashi afterwards only cemented his notion of impending doom. Then Shun, little cheeky shrimp that he was, just had to make a comment about the pitcher's smile. This was the moment when Abe Takaya began his period of denial.

Because, if he was going to fall for Mihashi (if he had fallen for him already, damnit all) at the very least he was going to follow the natural progression of a crush.

This brought him back to the present: the hotel room they were sharing. The fact was that, since he had ended his self-imposed denial, the next thing down the list was to make a move. Well, this was the perfect opportunity.

Wondering how to go about it, he heard Mihashi hum an off-key tune in the shower. They were in a good mood, a whole day watching games at Koshien, then exercise, then the pleasant surprise of the room assignments. Abe was sure that there was a cosmic force shoving them together (granted, Momokan had done an excellent job at that from the start, and in Abe's books she completely counted as a comic force…) and he was not going to let it… umm…

Abe stopped mid-internal-rant as Mihashi came out of the shower wearing his pajamas, his hair adorably soggy. He had thought that the whole 'falling-in-love-all-over-again' thing only happened in dramas (thanks mom) but here he was, going through it.

He closed his eyes, and sighed; Mihashi had a small moment of awkwardness when Abe had stared at him for a bit too long and was now blushing while getting ready for bed. See, Abe was pretty sure he wasn't the only one betting on the cosmic forces tonight. With a look of resolution at the ceiling Abe got up and sat on Mihashi's bed next to the pitcher, who started with his "A-Abe-kun…i-is something…" routine that really made him way too endearing and at the same time irritating.

Abe had no other choice but to blurt out, in a rare display of impulsiveness, "Mihashi, I like you; not only as a pitcher, or just a friend…I really like you." After realizing what he said, Abe reeled in the urge to frantically cover his mouth, that was decidedly un-abe-like. He settled on staring at Mihashi who was currently floundering.

And Mihashi let out a sound akin to being winded, and his eyes were full of wonder. But then he was touching Abe's face, blushing to the roots of his hair, and whispering, "I- me too…Abe-kun."

He let his hand drop and smiled that amazing smile of his and Abe, deciding that being un-abe-like while being this darn happy was okay, pulled him into a hug. They looked out of the window and appreciated the view once more. Abe said "goodnight" and retreated to his own bed –after a deliberate brush against Mihashi's hand– Mihashi smiled "goodnight" back and that was that.

They were now together and down the road of the natural progression of their relationship.

Tajima was well aware of his 'overprotective older brother' attitude that Izumi liked to call him on, complete with the deceivingly nonchalant face peppered with freckles and knowing blue eyes. Tajima also was aware of a few other things that Izumi, with all his coolness, and possibly most of the other Nishiura members, could not begin to fathom. Tajima knew about Abe and Mihashi. This was most remarkable because he knew officially, rather than just on instinct and speculation.

He was pretty sure it had taken Mihashi a whole two months before mustering the courage to tell Tajima – breaking, in the process, a myriad of rules probably set by Abe to protect their relationship. Given the significance of this trust, Tajima pretended to be surprised.

Mihashi had been all shuffling feet and blushing content as he looked at Tajima, expecting something. Tajima blinked before he realized that this was his friend coming out to him, asking to share a bit of the burden of secrecy with him, and he was obviously waiting for his answer. As he easily threw an arm around the wide-eyed blond, laughing muffled "About time"s and other similar expressions, Tajima realized that maybe he was a bit surprised.

The palm was warm against his back, rubbing at an even pace relaxing circles around the expanse of his number "1". The same hand that in a stroke of genius (idiocy, Abe-kun's voice said in his head) had used a sharpie and a bright smile to appease his doubts.

"Mihashi", a warm voice was saying, and now there were two warm palms on his back that moved up to grasp at his shoulders in a grip that was comforting but just a bit shy of demanding. He could hear the unbidden please turn around and so he did; gulping and holding in a shiver, but he did turn around to face his friend.

"T-tajima-kun…"

Tajima's serious face, all freckles and warm brown eyes focused on Mihashi, his hands still grasping his shoulders… Something shifted in his expression and, without hesitating, he pulled his gasping friend into a hug. "Ahaha, sorry!" he laughed while giving Mihashi a bit of his personal space back. "But Mihashi, refusing that meat bun at lunch was really scary, what's up with you?"Not to mention the utter mess practice had turned out to be…

Mihashi was considering. He was not sure what was going on. The past two weeks Abe-kun had been insistent that Mihashi practice with Tajima-kun. It had been okay, really; Mihashi wouldn't want to hinder the team in any way, even if his inherent selfishness made it hard on Tajima, but really, he was trying.

To be honest, what was getting to Mihashi was that Abe-kun had been distant. The fact that they were together did not mean that they were attached at the hip or that Abe-kun was extremely sweet or given to public displays of attention (Mihashi thought Abe-kun was really sweet anyways but he knew he would rather eat his own hat that tell Abe-kun this, out of a sense of self-preservation). However they did go on dates ("Hanging out!" Abe-kun was quick to say) and, well, they had lunch alone sometimes – shaking off the guys was hard and the burden always fell on Abe-kun. All in all they had their tender moments.

Blushing. Abe-kun is thorough in everything he does…

Shaking his head from these thoughts, which were not helping at all, Mihashi screwed his eyes shut in concentration. After years of verbal, but mostly non-verbal abuse, Mihashi was very good at picking up when he was being ignored, and it hurt that it was just what has been going on for almost… two and a half weeks.

"Mihashi! Here, do you want this extra meat bun? It's the last one so you better beg for it!"

Something was being waved in front of Mihashi's face; he blinked and almost jumped out of the seat at being startled. 'Oh, Tajima-kun'…

"T-That's okay, I'm not really hungry, Tajima-kun…" He went back to closing his eyes and pillowing his head on his arms. The universal sign of student anguish.

The rest of the class did a double-take; Mihashi's fanatical behavior towards food (especially meat buns) was legendary, even amongst those not in the baseball team. The other teammates in the class were staring in abject horror; Tajima meanwhile was looking at the meat bun suspiciously as if it was the poor thing's fault. He eventually retreated, to frantic whispers of his teammates.

They all knew a spaced out Mihashi meant trouble because that meant…

"Mihashi, what the hell?" Tajima ground out in an uncharacteristic bout of frustration. And he was being kind. Seriously, the way Mihashi was pitching, you would think that he was the same blubbering, crying, nervous wreck from almost a year ago. Ok, that sounded harsh, even in his head, but Tajima was a far cry from Abe when it came to catching (no one came close to that pitch-selection nerd as far as Tajima was concerned) and he couldn't help but feel the sting of their abysmal performance together.

Momokan's glare was unsettling and Abe was being a jerk and not his usual Mihashi-obsessed meddlesome self. Removing the mask, Tajima turned pleading eyes to Hanai, who gave him an apologetic look and returned to pitching to Abe.

Mihashi flinched, and Tajima realized it wasn't because of his yelling but the sound of Hanai's pitch against Abe's glove.

Tajima resigned himself, the sucking would end today. Abe was playing a weird game, which Hanai was apparently in on; whatever the goal was, Mihashi had finally acted out today and it was up to Tajima to somehow settle this.

Two weeks of not having a rewarding practice finally got to Tajima and fixing Mihashi with a hard look braced himself to just endure until he could talk to Mihashi alone after practice.

Mihashi tried to talk to Abe-kun. He tried to get him to walk home with him but he only got an absent-minded "I'm going over to Hanai's today. Sorry." He watched as Abe-kun gave him a wave and started out towards the locker room.

He missed the incredibly uncomfortable look Hanai had and the spectacular glare he was giving to Abe.

At this point, as Mihashi went to a faucet to cool off on his own. He didn't feel like going into the locker room and being ignored by Abe-kun, his (nowadays) seldom surfacing inferiority complex hitting him hard.

Crouching to the faucet, he heard all of his friend's goodbyes. Eventually Momokan and Shinooka were gone too and Mihashi was gasping on his own. Until he felt that warm palm on his back.

Tajima was in full protective mode. Seeing Abe leave with Hanai made something finally click, and he really did not want to have to be the one to confront Mihashi on this.

Looking intently into Mihashi's eyes, he was waiting for him to respond to his question.

"T-Tajima-kun, sorry for these practices…" Finally. He had never had so much trouble understanding Mihashi. "A-Abe-kun, I think he finally is disgusted by me…" Tajima was at a loss, he knew the whole problem was linked to Abe but nothing had hinted at it being this bad. When Mihashi started crying Tajima got even more alarmed but something in him was shifting.

"He has been ignoring me, for almost three weeks… Well, two weeks and a half… and it really h-hurts…" Mihashi had a look that screamed I don't know what I did, please tell me. Tajima really wanted to, but apart from knowing the two were together and had been for a long time now, he didn't have a clue that they had had any conflicts.

Tajima opened his mouth just to slam it shut again. Mihashi suddenly grabbed his shirt and his school uniform –by now Tajima had changed– and buried his face in his chest. Tajima could only gape at his shaking shoulders and grasped them. He was at a loss. He started rubbing his head while saying the standard "shh, it's okay" in hopes of helping out. He was relieved that Momokan had trusted him with closing up the club-house, otherwise this could have gotten quite awkward with Shinooka…

Just then, Mihashi looked up, and Tajima swore he had this look that he'd only seen a couple of times when he was on the mound, and in the span of 3 seconds he had a mouthful of Mihashi. The pitcher was kissing Tajima with such insistence and aggression that for a second Tajima thought it was someone else altogether.

"Abe, you need to stop this, I know that it's important for you that Mihashi and Tajima get better at being a battery, but don't you think it would have gone better if you talked to him about it?" Hanai was saying to an obviously distracted Abe. "I mean, you have hardly been civil to Mihashi these past two weeks, how do you think he is feeling? You know how much he depends on you and you depend on hi–"

Abe glared. "That's precisely why I went about this whole situation this way. If he knows he can depend on me, he won't try his best; it's a crash course for them." Hanai sighed and opened his mouth again, but Abe carried on. "I'm going home, Hanai, I don't want to hear more of this." Abe turned around and started to walk just to be stopped by a strong grip.

"I swear – if you don't fix this, I will beat you up! It is obvious you aren't happy, you think only Tajima and Mihashi are sucking at practice? Forget practice, the team isn't the most important thing riding on this silly game of yours right? How long did I watch you pine for him? It's going to be a year soon!"

Abe's eyes were widened to an extent that would be comical in any other situation, and then he looked down and said "I know, I can't believe it right? Almost a year…"

Hanai shoved him, hard. "Look, you made Mihashi feel like shit because of your own insecurities. It wouldn't be surprising if Tajima took off with him not only as a battery, if they even got along better before you come to your senses. Because, right now, you probably made him feel like he is back at Mihoshi."

Abe cringed, Hanai did as well, but if that was what it took… And it worked; Abe was running back in Nishiura's direction.

Hanai sighed. Hopefully Tajima wouldn't have done anything stupid. He face-palmed, knowing what Tajima's comforting entailed…

Actually, Hanai realized, he was pretty pissed as well. He followed after Abe.

"Hnng…" Tajima felt Mihashi groan into the kiss and it made him open his mouth. Soon Mihashi's tongue was inside his mouth and it felt so good. Eventually, the kiss broke and Tajima was a feeling an odd combination of horny and flabbergasted. He imagined this is how Hanai felt whenever Tajima messed around with him… Oh, Mihashi was talking…

"T-Tajima-kun, I'm sorry, it's just I'm so confused and well you are such a good person and—"

Tajima shut him up with a kiss. "It's okay, I understand." Even though, quite frankly, he was grasping at straws. He did know one thing though. Mihashi was not crying anymore and if a little bit of fun helped him feel better or take his mind off things, well…Tajima had always been better at acting rather than talking. Effectively or in a way it made sense to others. Right. "Let's move."

They relocated to the locker rooms, and as soon as they were inside, Tajima cornered Mihashi against one of the lockers.

Tajima focused and leaned into Mihashi. He kissed him, and this time Tajima was the one leading. He deepened the kiss and his tongue explored the inside of Mihashi's mouth. He nibbled on Mihashi's bottom lip, making him gasp and start battling with Tajima's tongue.

Mihashi's hand started to wander to Tajima's side and eventually snaked down to rest on low on Tajima's back. Tajima hummed his approval and grasped Mihashi to pull him flush against him.

Mihashi cut off the kiss and Tajima realized the surprised look he was sporting. They were both hard. Tajima grinded against Mihashi.

"Nng… T-Tajima-kun…" – never had he found Mihashi's stutter so hot – "Hn– Maybe, maybe we should stop…"

At this, Tajima bent down on his knees and pulled Mihashi's baseball slacks down. "Do you really want to? If you really do, I will." Tajima slid down Mihashi's briefs and eyed his jock-strap-clad groin with a wicked grin. "Well, do you want to stop?"

Mihashi had a determined look. His mouth was firmly shut.

Tajima got on his feet again (Mihashi looked bereft for a second) and then Tajima smiled again. "Okay then, let's feel good," he whispered into Mihashi's ear while beginning to plaster wet kisses down his throat. Mihashi tasted salty, and Tajima was perfectly fine with that.

Tajima's hand went up Mihashi's shirt and went past the two hardening nubs of flesh. Mihashi whimpered and Tajima smiled against his neck. He could feel Mihashi starting to grind against his leg, making a whole array of needy, breathy sounds that made Tajima groan in earnest. He could feel Mihashi's hand trying to remove his shirt. He wasn't planning to go all the way, and he knew that the minute he lost his clothes he would lose control, so instead Tajima started mouthing Mihashi's nipples through his cotton jersey.

Tajima slowly got down on his knees again and carefully removed the jock strap from Mihashi, freeing Mihashi's cock from it and watching it eagerly spring to attention. Tajima gave it an experimental lick, and Mihashi's hand tangled in his short dark hair. But it wasn't an encouraging grip. Tajima looked up. Mihashi looked torn. Tajima got up and just kissed Mihashi again, one of his hands groping the pitcher's ass while the other massaged Mihashi's neglected cock.

Tajima grinded into Mihashi again, the blond giving out a long moan that sounded, at the end, suspiciously, like 'Abe-kun...'followed by a soft gasp and, "I'm sorry, Tajima-kun". Tajima was in the process of silencing that by kissing Mihashi once more when he was suddenly and forcefully pulled back and out of the way…

Abe was glaring down at him.

Abe was angry. Really angry. And he had no one to vent at but himself, but first things first. He went to his locker got one of his sweat pants out and handed it over to Mihashi.

As is to be expected, Mihashi was gaping like a fish and the brunt of the situation hadn't hit him. This was just as well, because Abe wanted to deal with the ensuing freak-out in private. This was for their benefit as much as Tajima's because, quite frankly, he wanted to beat the shit out of their batting ace. It had taken all of Abe's will and restraint to not shove him to the floor when he had found them. The infinite mantra of koshien,koshien, we need him for koshien-MIHASHI IS MINE-koshien…was helping a lot.

In a daze, Mihashi pulled the sweatpants over himself.

Abe turned to Tajima. He noted the other boy was fully dressed… and looking in transfixed horror at the general direction of the door.

Oh shi—

"SHIT! Hanai!"

This is when the proverbial shit hit the fan for Tajima. He was fine with Abe's white hot silent anger but Hanai showing up, crap-crap-crap-cra–

"Tajima get your stuff, let's go." Hanai turned on the spot, not looking to see if Tajima was doing what he was told.

Not that he needed to. Tajima gave one desperate look at Mihashi, figured Abe had gotten his act together, went outside to collect his abandoned bag and turned tail after Hanai.

"Hanai! I can explain I swear!" was the last thing that Abe and Mihashi heard as Tajima dashed into the fading evening rays.

Abe was not even going to try to interpret what that was about. Because if he did his brain was going to implode.

Anyways. He turned to Mihashi whose bottom lip was quivering and was looking so miserable that Abe just had the urge to hug him, but he had to ask first. "Mihashi, is it okay if I hold you?"

Mihashi looked utterly confused but a bit appeased at the request and so nodded.

His head hadn't even finished doing the whole 'up-down' motion of a proper nod and already Abe had his arms around him and was burying his head in Mihashi's hair.

Mihashi was making surprised noises and Abe could tell he wanted to say something. But, before that, he could feel Mihashi's discomfort and it made his blood boil. Abe was jealous, he would not deny that, the rational part of him (which right now he wanted to just die) just chalked it up to the natural progression of things. He is with Mihashi, seeing someone else with him makes him jealous. Completely natural. Even if he had no right to feel this way with how he'd been acting…

"A-Abe-kun… Are you, um, ok?" Abe blinked and finally moved. If Mihashi's white face was anything to go by he must have been frowning up a storm. He felt his eyebrows try to pull even further down, but apparently they'd reach the limit imposed by his body. So instead he sighed and closed his eyes. He semi-cursed his simple-minded male mind and proceeded to softly kiss Mihashi.

Abe needed him, needed to feel that Mihashi was still with him. He needed reassurance. And then Mihashi pushed him away.

Abe-kun caught us. Abe-kun is suddenly hugging me. Abe-kun is kissing me.

Stop.

I don't understand.

"Abe-kun, w-what's going on…? Please, I d-don't get it… I can't just… please."

Abe-kun's frown let up, thank god, and instead came a look of surprise and confusion that Mihashi found himself taking a dark pleasure of.

Mihashi recognized the beginnings of anger in himself. It was an emotion he had almost no experience with. Obviously, he had felt it flutter within his chest, but he was incapable of summoning it at will. But this time he could recognize it and he was embracing it.

He did not like it, especially because a part of him knew it was probably all his fault and Abe-kun definitely had good reasons to do things the way he did them. Mihashi felt very bad and decided that only his mother's food would help him just begin to fathom what was going on.

He waited for Abe-kun to elaborate. When he didn't, Mihashi began to fidget and then decided to nervously gather his clothes and make a retreat. He was halfway out the door, Abe-kun making no signs of following him, when he ran into something and fell hard.

That something turned out to be a furious Hanai-with Tajima in tow.

Abe snapped out of his panic when he saw Mihashi fall. He rushed and checked him all over saying his customary "Are you hurt? Where are you hurt? Is your arm fine?" he caught himself just before reaching for the bottle of spray, seeing this was probably making Mihashi feel even worse. Then he felt like he was punched in the chest and turned to see that Hanai had thrown the clubhouse keys at him.

Tajima was giving Mihashi apologetic looks over Hanai's shoulder, until Hanai elbowed him and said "Here, lock up when you are done". Without further ado, the pair walked out of the clubhouse.

Abe nodded, mostly to himself, dumbfounded. He had heard the threat loud and clear. Fix it.

"Mihashi, I wanted you to be independent. I was acting this way because I thought it was the easiest way for your dynamic with Tajima to improve…"Abe saw Mihashi's back tense up and amended quickly, "I never wanted for this to go so far and I dragged Hanai into it and well… I really don't know what is going on on their side of things but – look! I mean – practice sucked for me too, and I hated seeing you with Tajima and well maybe I'm too dependent…"

Sorry. Say it, c'mon; when you mess up it is only natural to apologize. Abe had messed up and driven Mihashi into Tajima's comforting arms… he was –

"Sorry, Abe-kun, I knew you had good reasons for… this. And I w-went and… me and Tajima-kun we… A-be-kun." Mihashi still had his back to him.

Abe walked closer to him. Turn around. Turn around. Then Abe heard Mihashi's withheld gasps and felt himself crumble.

"I don't care, Mihashi. I really don't. So just, please, turn around. And let's go home. I'm…"Sorry. "Look, tomorrow I'll go over to your house. Your mom is working right? We'll cook and stuff. We'll be fine. If you want to." We'll be fine.

-We'll cook and stuff"

Mihashi knew how bad Abe-kun was at cooking. He also knew how much Abe-kun hated to suck, well, at anything really. And he was putting himself through it. It was a very stunted way to try to right things. Mihashi found he didn't care either, he wanted to be fine.

He turned around and said: "O-kay Abe-kun. But this time, let's try not to ruin the batch of gyoza, because I don't like wasting food."

When Abe-kun closed his eyes and blushed. Mihashi knew they'd be fine.

Hanai was currently attacking Tajima's neck. His mother did not particularly care about the extra guest, so they had a quick dinner and promptly went up the stairs to his room. Hanai's sisters made themselves scarce; they knew when to steer clear of their big brother.

Tajima was trying to hold in his groans- Succeeding, for the most part- while Hanai continued down his trail and played with Tajima's nipples, making Tajima bite the pillow to stop from moaning out loud. Their clothes had been discarded long ago, forcefully, by Hanai. Tajima wasn't complaining at all, but he was a bit surprised at his Captain's eagerness.

Hanai kept on going until he hit that thatch of dark brown hair with the heady, musky scent that he rarely basked in because, for the most part- in this little game of theirs- it was Tajima doing the tackling, it was Tajima eliciting groans out of him in the corners of the deserted clubhouse, in his room with his huge family in the living room. It was Tajima who sucked his cock, all the time locking eyes with him, with a lack of shyness that made Hanai close his.

Hanai did not want to share. So he cupped Tajima's balls and relished the muffled groan that grumbled out of the shorter boy when Hanai took his whole length without any warning. He licked the underside, tracing the vein all the way up to the engorged head. He licked the slit and saw Tajima's eyes roll back until they closed. Hanai stopped.

"Look at me Tajima." This is me beating you at this game.

Tajima looked at him, and Hanai licked his balls, reaching up with one hand to brush Tajima's torso. Tajima was twisting wildly, finally regaining enough sense to rise up on his elbows and do a closer inspection. Hanai took his length inside his mouth once more, and Tajima clenched his teeth over his lips and then into a silent O and then he mouthed Hanai's name and came.

Hanai got up and sat down at the edge of the bed. Hearing Tajima's breaths slow down.

"Haha, Hanai, ah – I guess that makes us 'exclusive'…"

Hanai felt his face heating up from Tajima's gasping words. Leave it to the idiot to make him blush after Hanai gives him a blowjob. Hanai whirled around ready to yell at the idiot some more, but Tajima held fast to him before any of this and kissed him.

"Let's take care of this first," Tajima said, palming Hanai's erection. "Then we'll be 'exclusive'. "

Groaning into Tajima's mouth, Hanai had the faint idea that he was going to have to explain what 'exclusive' meant, or it was going to become another 'strictly', kind of word.

Four days later had Mihashi eating his bento (the contents did not look all that great) happily, Abe looking grumpy while eating his usual lunch from the cafeteria and, across from them, Hanai face-palming about Tajima's "we're 'strictly exclusive'."

Izumi and Sakaeguchi shared a knowing and slightly freaked out look, while Mizutani just charged happily towards the couples and almost fell over from Abe's scream after he tried to pilfer some sausages from Mihashi with a laughing "Haha, are these supposed to be octopuses ahahah…" Suyama and Oki sat down, along with the others, a bit clueless to the situation but very apprehensive nonetheless.

Only Nishihiro did not sit with them. He smiled and said he had something to do.

While most of the Nishiura team was having lunch at the cafeteria in their almost complete dysfunction, Nishihiro was busy collecting some extra pocket cash from Shinooka. The rest could wait until after practice, when he would see Momokan.

End