Author's Note: Ok, this is a continuation of Moving On, a oneshot about Kanou and Oda I wrote a month ago, maybe two? Regardless, I find myself reading that fic whenever I need a cheer-upper. And it works every time. You don't necessarily need to read Moving On to understand this one, but it's suggested that you do, and I wish you would. :)

Your parents still gone, right? - Kanou

Yeah, why? You need something? - Oda

Kanou didn't text back. Instead, from Oda's room, a nearly groundbreaking slam was heard at the entrance to the house nearly seconds after Oda had sent the inquiring message.

Soon afterwords came a loud scream. A masculine, angry, ear-piercing, monosyllabic scream.

Oda had heard Kanou scream before (many, many times) but never as angrily, and never as loudly. Kanou's first words after the scream was a very extended "Fuuuck!", and Oda took a deep breath and braced himself.

Unpredictable outbursts and uncalled for profanity- typical Kanou.

"Come on in!" he hollered sarcastically from his room, and then walked calmly and cool in the direction of the front door. But before he could even reach the hallway Kanou had stomped up to him, scarlet-faced and clearly very, very upset.

Ohh, shit. Here we gooo…

"Fuck my life!" he said hoarsely, his voice obviously taken a toll from the screaming.

Oda continued to feign nonchalance. "Bad day?"

"Fuck you!" He flew past Oda in a blind rage towards his boyfriend's room and collapsed hard and loud face first into the taller boy's bed. Oda took a minute to collect himself before he said something he knew he'd regret (something along the lines of "I was hoping the next time you jumped on my bed I would have been the reason- looks like I have some competition." but he wanted to keep his left eye perfectly intact, so he stopped himself). He massaged his closed eyes for a minute before following Kanou's loud and ground-shaking footsteps.

Oda entered his bedroom and leaned against the wall, calm and collected. After a moment or two given to calm the currently distressed pitcher down, he spoke. "You wanna talk about it?"

Kanou looked like a teenage girl that had just gotten dumped. He sighed into Oda's pillow. "No."

The clean up hitter couldn't help but smile at the cuteness in Kanou's muffled words. He walked over to his bed and flopped on his stomach right next to him, placing an arm around his neck and tugging him close to him. "Yeah you do." he muttered softly.

Kanou lifted his head from the pillow, though not looking at Oda, and scooted a little closer to his lover. Oda kissed his cheek softly, his arm still loosely wrapped around the pitcher's neck. "Talk."

Kanou inhaled sharply. "Don't get mad."

"Because I do that often."

"Shut up, I'm serious." he started to speak, but out came a long frustrated sigh instead of words. Oda gave him time to chill out, and knowing Kanou, that could've been anywhere from five seconds to five hours. This go around it took about three seconds for his vocal chords to start working again.

He kept his eyes locked on the pitcher, ready to take whatever it was that he would throw at him. Kanou, on the other hand, kept his gaze anywhere but his lover. Finally Kanou spoke.

"I have a connection or two at Nishiura…" it was Kanou's way of saying that he may or may not have made a friend or two from Nishiura's baseball team. "…and, apparently, Ren and Abe are apparently a couple. An open couple."

Oda was a bit confused. "Well for one thing, I thought you were over him. And for another, it's not like you didn't see this coming." There was no hint of jealousy in the first baseman's voice, just confusion and general concern for the pitcher he'd come to care so much about. "That's not all, is it?"

Kanou couldn't help but smile- Oda could always see right through him. The smile, though, kind of creeped Oda out. "…Kanou?"

The smile was gone in milliseconds and Kanou was back to his grumpy self again. Oda wanted to chuckle but held it back.

"…I…"

Kanou went from soft frustration to a mix between anger and sadness to one of the most pitiful looks Oda had ever seen on the boy's face. Suddenly Oda felt his face get hot when Kanou's eyes started to tear up. Oda hadn't seen Kanou cry since the day that they lost to Nishiura, which was when they were both freshmen… they were third years now.

So, this was the second time in three years he had ever seen Kanou cry. And both times, it was over Mihashi. He didn't count the occurrence on the field during the practice game because Kanou swears that he most definitely wasn't crying, but even if he did, even that time it had something to do with Nishiura's pitcher.

"I wish, to fucking god I wish, that I didn't give a shit." seeing the pitcher this upset started to tear Oda apart, and he knew that the best thing Kanou needed at the moment was to just vent. "But, I mean… I'm like a sick little hormonal girl! This shouldn't be anything to me. I'm more pissed at the fact that a give a shit than I am at the actual situation, and then I'm pissed about being pissed! It's a never-ending chain of me being pissed! It isn't fucking fair!"

"What aint?" Oda chimed in. "It aint fair that your pissed all the time, or it aint fair that that's Abe that's got Mihashi and not you?"

"Both!"

The first baseman started to feel a little tension in his stomach. It aint exactly fair to me either. "…alright."

Kanou just took a deep breath and buried his face in his pillow once more to yell loudly into. Oda couldn't help but roll his eyes. When his lover reemerged his brow was furrowed and his eyes were half closed. "So, maybe… I followed 'em."

"Kanou, what the hell."

"And… I heard him tell him that he loved him and shit."

"Who told who that?"

"Miha-" he stopped. "Does it matter?"

Oda sighed and rose from the bed. This was nothing shocking- Kanou just needed a good fuck or two and he would forget the whole Mihashi thing. For a guy, he was beyond emotional. It was cute but it was also a lot to handle. The first baseman headed in the direction of his bedroom door to maybe go to the kitchen and grab some alcohol to calm his boyfriend down.

Kanou extracted his body from it's pitiful position and sat up straight, his back to his lover. "I don't understand." and that stopped Oda in his tracks. "…seeing Mihashi get this big goofy smile on his face when I complimented his pitching meant the world to me. I was so nice to him, and I hardly ever gave him a negative word." he tossed his head back and looked at Oda's ceiling, trying to find the answer in the notches and bumps out of the ceiling texture. "And Abe… judges him consistently. Tells him what to do. Orders him around." Oda felt his heart start to break when the pitcher hugged his knees to his chest.

"What the hell did he have that I didn't?" the first baseman knew he should do something, but he didn't know what. "I-I don't even remember insulting the guy once! And everything Mihashi does wrong that damn catcher gets all angry at him for! How is that anything better than what I had to offer him?"

"Kanou…" Oda exhaled hard and watched the pitcher carefully from a few feet away. "Mihashi was probably oblivious to you likin' him and everything… but… a nice guy to compliment him all the time might not have been what he exactly needed."

"Oh yeah?" Kanou straightened up and turned to face Oda. "The hell about what I need then? The hell with what's important to me, huh Oda?"

He knew he should've stayed calm and let Kanou yell at him, but he couldn't help but clench his fists. "You don't need somebody like that… you need somebody that can take your shit…" he said the swear word with so much anger that Kanou actually backed down a little. "You need somebody… that can actually help you. That can protect you, I mean…"

"I don't need protecting! I'm not a child, Oda!"

The taller of the two finally just snapped. "The fuck are you crying for all the time then?"

That had done it, the pitcher was over the edge. He got to his feet with so much force and got right into Oda's face, hollering at the top of his lungs.

"You've only seen me cry twice, bastard!"

"Yeah… over Mihashi!"

The anger flaring in both of their eyes was just enough to set the room ablaze. Kanou fought back with the bark of a pit bull, though, not willing to back down after the crying comment.

"Cause I felt something, you ass!"

"Yeah, well you feel too much!"

"That's not what you thought three years ag-"

"Three years ago you told me you were over him, and that I had "taken his place" or some shit! So I put up with your stupid-ass fuckin' squallin' all the time, cause nobody else would!"

There was a consistent rise in volume between the two combatants, and Oda thought he was going to have to beat the shit out of Kanou sooner or later.

"And what makes this any different? That it's Mihashi? The same damn thing as last time?" Kanou's stare bore into Oda like fire, and Oda glared back. "Jealousy finally catching up to you, huh?"

"It's different because you clearly still got something for him!" Oda forced his next words out with as much anger as he could muster. "And I don't give a shit if you'd rather have granddaddy's boy than me! Get off your ass and go get him!"

"No!"

"Then why the fuck are you so upset?"

"Because… I still feel something!"

"There you go again with feeling shit! What does it matter if you feel anything?"

"I don't wanna feel anything else for him, you ass!"

"Well why the fuck not, Kanou?"

"Because I love you, goddammit!"

And just like that, the chord had been pulled. It was like a remote had shut off the television in the midst of an intense shooting scene, straight from loud and heavy to silence. Oda was frozen, his eyes wide as saucers at his pitcher. His heart could hardly handle the transition from loud, thick anger to an almost painfully sudden amalgamation of shock and… happiness. He couldn't believe what he was feeling, what he was finding out could really happen to someone. Kanou… loved him.

Kanou stared at Oda for a little while before wiping his eyes with his sleeve. He sniffled, but more tears came, different ones. He made a small but swift movement away from Oda towards the door. "I'm gonna go."

"Like hell you are," said the taller boy as he grabbed Kanou's arm firmly. "Come here."

Kanou wanted to protest but knew if he did the tears would be evident in his voice. He expected a slap in the face or a kick to the gut, that's certainly what he felt he deserved. But instead Oda pulled him forcefully and with full strength into one of the tightest embraces he had ever been a part of. Oda had his arms wrapped around him tight, Kanou's back to him. He didn't want to look at Oda's face right now.

"Let me go." he squeaked. In reality, that was the last thing he wanted.

"No." Oda said firmly, leaving no room for argument. He moved his lips to Kanou's ear and tightened his grip. "Never again."

After holding him like that tightly for a little while, he moved his hands to his pitcher's strong shoulders and turned the boy softly in his arms to face him, but the boy refused with all his will to let his boyfriend see his tear-stained face so close.

But all it took was him to say something. "Look at me." and more tears slowly slipped away. "No." was the pitchers choked response. The taller of the two simply placed his hand in a soft grip of the boys chin and lifted it slightly, and under bangs of black hair he could see the eyes of the boy he liked, no, he loved, red and swollen, looking up at him, pleading, apologizing. God, he was so gorgeous.

He took both hands and placed them on either side of his boyfriend's face, using his thumbs to gently rid of his tears.

He pressed his forehead against Kanou's and smiled at him. "Quit it."

"Quit what?" the pitcher tried to spat out with attitude, but the sweet post-crying voice of his was all that came through. Oda felt his stomach flip at how adorable and vulnerable it sounded. He could have made love to the boy right then and there.

"Being so fuckin' addicting and adorable." he leaned in for a kiss, and Kanou felt as if he was going to melt. Both boys closed their eyes and pressed lips softly, not needing physical gratification, but needing each other more than anything.

When Oda's lips left his he fought back a whimper, but the clean-up hitter's rough hands and cool forehead still were in contact with the pitcher's face. As hard as it was to look into his beloved's eyes, Kanou didn't tear away- never in a million years did he think he'd actually admit it, but he wanted Oda, all to himself. He needed Oda, and he needed Oda to need him too.

"Say it again."

"No."

"If you tell me 'no' one more time, boy, I swear."

Kanou went back and counted how many times he had refused Oda today and sighed in genuine guilt. "…do I have to?"

Oda smirked. "So hollerin' at me in a hell-fire angry growl and tellin' me is way easier than just comin' out and sayin' it."

Kanou didn't answer, enticing a loud laugh from his love.

"It's always been easy for you to get mad."

"…I love you, ok? Now shut the hell up."

Oda smiled. "There you go again, having to get all pissed to let your real feelings come through." Kanou's eyes got wide as he realized that this was true. "But it's a quality that I reckon I like."

They kissed again, this time deeper and warmer, desperately reaching for that one thing that they needed to fill the emptiness inside them.

They broke the kiss after three seconds, and Kanou threw himself deeper into Oda's arms, burying himself in his chest. Seeing that his lover was coming around, the batter smiled and kissed the top of his pitcher's head.

"I'm sorry." the teen muttered. "For making you put up with me, for Mihashi, for everything." Kanou's words were honest, but the crying was over for a very long time (hopefully) now that he got what he needed to say off of his chest.

"Don't apologize unless it's your fault." Oda told him. "I choose to put up with your shit."

"Yeah, thank God too."

As promised, Oda did walk him home from practice the day after Kanou's confession.

They got to the front door, stood facing one another, no one around to see them, and the other members of Kanou's household weren't home yet. In the mind setting of say, a teenage girl, this would have been the perfect place for a first kiss. Well, Kanou wasn't exactly a teenage girl nor was he a romantic in any sense, so before Oda even had a chance to think about it Kanou gave it to him straight.

"If you kiss me, I'll break your nose."

The first baseman laughed. "The deal was that if you were nice to me, I might kiss you. As in, maybe. As in, if I felt like it. You've been a total prick all day, so step two of that operation didn't even come into play."

His western accent was so cute with his sarcastic and witty remarks. But that was beside the point.

"I was a prick because I didn't want to be kissed."

Oda raised a curious eyebrow. "Why the hell wouldn't you want a kiss from the person you like?"

"To be totally honest," Kanou stared Oda right in his eyes, serious as a heart attack. "I'm still not convinced that you're not just fucking with me."

"And what in blue blazes am I supposed to do to teach you otherwise?" Oda was also shockingly serious, which surprised Kanou.

Oda's seriousness melted into one of the dopiest but cutest smiles Kanou had ever seen on another human. "Kiss you maybe?"

Kanou just rolled his eyes and opened the door to his home with his key. But internally a scream came up from his stomach to tell him that he was a complete fucktard for denying a kiss completely.

He was indoors, looking at Oda, who's tall frame was now leaning on the doorway, leaving a shadow to loom over Kanou. This is your last chance, the voice told him.

He was about to say something completely witty and rude to maybe lead into possibly giving Oda permission to maybe kiss him when the first baseman leaned down and crashed his lips with his pitcher's.

It was soft and warm and not what Kanou expected a kiss from a guy to be like. He thought he'd be rebellious and push the teen away but his body said otherwise, and he felt his eyes close shut.

Oda broke the encounter, and Kanou's eyes flew open, but held his face at mere inches from Kanou's to say his final words before heading home.

"I am not fucking around."

Oda was the one to crash into the bed this time, only this time he had a boy about a foot shorter than him kissing him as if he would never kiss him again and holding on to him tightly as they did so, and when the two crashed into the bed together, Oda's back actually making contact to the soft mattress and Kanou laying lazily on top of him with his hands running gently through the first baseman's hair, it was like all the times before- with one very large thing different, though neither could pick out exactly what it was.

They just laid there and kissed- something that they had never done before but did it so well it was if they had been doing it their whole lives- the kisses ranging everywhere from short sweet ones to long deep ones, and Oda gently turned so that the two places were switched about halfway through their half-hour of just kissing. No words, just lips and touch, and each other.

Until of course the first baseman couldn't help himself anymore.

He softly kissed the pitcher's neck, starting from right below the jaw and leaving a soft trail all the way to his collarbone. It felt so damn good but Kanou knew all to well where this was headed.

"O-Oda, not now, I-"

"I'm sorry, I cant hold back…" he slipped his hand softly under the shorter boy's shirt and felt his breathing get a little deeper. He just felt- that's all he wanted, for now- and said something that Kanou didn't ever dream would ever be said to him by anyone, much less his teammate.

"I need you." he whispered as he buried his face in the pitcher's shoulder to kiss it softly. "And I need you to need me too."

Words didn't come out, mostly because they couldn't and partially because Kanou wouldn't even try. It was impossible to resist at this point. All that left Kanou's mouth was a soft and quiet moan as Oda began to unbutton his shirt and gently kiss his chest.

"Kanou! Could you come here for a second?"

The pitcher looked in the direction of the voice addressing him and dropped the ball he had just caught from Hitake's throw on the ground. "Sure thing, Coach."

Hitake also looked in the coach's direction to see a tall, tan and very-well built teen standing next to him, a baseball bag on his left shoulder.

Kanou rushed over to his coach and the tall boy. This kid had to be at least a whole foot taller than him.

"Kanou, this is Oda."

Oda grinned and briefly removed his cap. "Howdy!"

Ah, yes. The western recruit. The new clean-up hitter for the freshman team.

Kanou followed suit and removed his hat completely. "Nice to meet you."

"Oda, Kanou's our pitcher. See if you two cant make some time to get together and hit a few, get acquainted."

The coach walked off and Oda smiled. "Word is you're one hell of a pitcher."

Kanou took that as a challenge and smiled wide. "Word is you can hit homers like nobody's business." he nodded his head in the direction of the mound. "Let's see you live up to that rep."

"Likewise."

He called for Hitake and the catcher put himself in his usual position, Oda throwing his bag on the ground and grabbing a bat. "Gimme what you got, Pitch!"

Kanou smiled. Usually he would show off some of his breakers to a newcomer, but this time it was different- he wanted to see that infamous hit.

He threw Hitake a fast ball right in the strike zone and saw Oda make contact with the gloriously deafening crack of a bat, sending it flying out of the field.

The whole team released gasps and wide eyed stares, Hitake included, and Kanou couldn't remember the last time he felt so much joy at having a pitch hit off of.

Oda called out to him, ignoring the current onlooker's shocked expressions. "That all you got?"

Kanou grinned. "Not hardly." Oda got ready for yet another pitch, and this time Kanou would give him what it was he was looking for. He threw a shallow-gripped forker right down the center, and Oda's eyes went wide at the ball that was now slammed into Hitake's glove.

"Nice throw!" the catcher called out. The rumors were true, then- both players were exactly what they had heard about the other. And together, they were going kick serious ass. They shared a glance of mutual respect before Kanou tossed another strike.

Kanou tried desperately to control his breath, to not let the scarlet in his face be so obvious- this was more than just sex. Whatever it was, it was slower, and more passionate and made Kanou embarrassed but at the same time feel amazing.

His hands all over him- his bare chest against his- he had felt this an innumerable amount of times before, but Oda was taking it crazy slow, like he wanted to breathe it all in before he went further.

After what seemed like a blissful eternity, Oda started stroking him slowly, kissing the pitcher's neck as he did so. He hit that one spot right below his ear and Kanou made a strange, feminine but arousing noise, feeling his lover's teeth nip at his skin. This all seemed so familiar. This all linked back to something, something that Kanou knew he should've remembered, but Oda's touch and mouth had clouded his thought process as a whole.

Oda did more unmistakably familiar things when it hit him- this was dangerously similar to their first time.

"You're breathin' like you've been underwater for an hour."

"Shut up!" he was, indeed, breathing hard, as well as sweating and biting his fist. Oda just smiled and softly kissed his neck, finding a spot that he'd hit before and got just the right reaction, as he pumped him slowly.

"You enjoyin' this?" he whispered in his ear, Kanou's knuckles now literally starting to bleed from the teeth that was sunk into them. "That had better not be your pitchin' hand."

"It's not!"

Kanou was tense, as expected for a couple's first time. And usually Oda would just live with it- but he wanted his secret boyfriend to feel good. He removed his hand from the boy's crotch and moved face to face with his pitcher.

"Let go." he whispered. "It's just me- you don't have to be a tough guy right now… just enjoy it."

Kanou's eyes sharpened. "I am!"

"Then let me hear you." he took the hand from Kanou's mouth and kissed where it was bleeding. "Don't hide from me like you do everyone else." he smiled down at him as he laced his fingers with his pitcher's. "I'm different."

He moved downward until his lips met Kanou's erection, and he began licking the length carefully.

No longer able to hold back, the pitcher rolled his eyes backwards and surrendered himself to pleasure as he whispered Oda's name.

"O-Oda…"

But the first baseman silenced him with a deep, romantic kiss, scooping him up with unworldly strength and into his lap, Kanou's legs folded on either side of Oda. The taller of the two held his naked lover like that for a moment before turning so that his own back was to the headboard.

He stared into the pitcher's eyes as he pushed into him, and the dark-haired beauty squinted and gasped. It was a nearly identical repeat performance of their first time, albeit Kanou being much, much tighter and a lot more foul-mouthed. The both of them were flushed with memories of that night after a win, kissing places that had never been kissed before and feeling things that neither knew even existed.

There were nights when he'd fuck him raw, fast and hard until his teeth hurt from gritting them so much, and there were nights when he'd tease him until Kanou was literally begging for him to come inside. But there were only two nights when he thrust slow, staring at Kanou and not taking any chances of missing anything, wanting to see and hear the only things he was allowed to see and hear- and those nights were their first night together and now.

"O-Oda… so good…"

He loved hearing Kanou saying his name like that- as if he was using the last bit of breath in his body to say it. He kissed him then, not to keep him quiet but to feel him, to make sure that this wasn't a dream. That reality was, at this moment, to be making love to someone that he loved.

Neither wanted it to end. Never had they felt so warm and alive, holding on to each other for dear life, knowing for the first time in their lives that this was where they were supposed to be. They breathed each other in carefully, scared to exhale.

Kanou made a small and failed attempt to speak. "I-" but something- another thrust, the look in Oda's eyes, something- stopped him.

"Say it."

It's not like he wouldn't, he couldn't. His throat was dry and the silence was too perfect. But it was something he needed Oda to hear.

"Please say it." he brushed some hair out of the pitcher's face. "I'll do anything."

His pride would have made him blush, but he didn't have any- what did he have to hide from the only person he ever met that completely understood him? Why did it matter anymore what he said or how he said it?

"I love you." he whispered, and he felt a little pain in his throat when he did but it was beyond worth it.

They both felt their hearts drop when they felt the familiar feeling of a climax coming. One more, and it was over. They were both out of breath from saying the other's name, their bodies sweaty and hot, and their throats dry from the loud cries and calls. Oda wanted to waste more time but knew that this would be happening again- he followed suit and pushed hard into his pitcher one more time, evicting a loud moan from his lover.

"I love you… Kanou…"

She kept staring. The bitch had gotten what she wanted, would it kill her to give Oda some personal space?

And Oda just smiled down at her, that cheesy grin of his plastered all over his stupidly adorable face.

Kanou wasn't jealous, he just got angry when other people felt obligated to take up Oda's time… secret or not, Oda was HIS boyfriend.

Boyfriend… the word hadn't quite registered in Kanou's head just yet. Quite frankly it made him feel uncomfortable, but what else was he supposed to call him? A lover? A friend with benefits? Those terms also felt weird in his head, so he settled on "guy friend who was secretly fucking me".

He then mentally slapped himself and decided "boyfriend" would just have to do until Webster got in with what was really going on these days and made a word for it.

But there she was. Still. Okay, bitch, time to go home. Moving on, nothing to see here.

When the two shared a laugh at something that Kanou hadn't heard he felt his stomach tie up in a tight knot. And then she very lightly pushed his arm while she laughed- that whore had touched him! She'd dare touch the secret boyfriend of Shuugo Kanou!

"Oda!" he called out. "Come on, I wanna go home!"

Oda grinned back at him. "Hang on just a second!"

Outwardly, he yelled with angry vigor, "Dude, come on!"

Inwardly, he said deeply through gritted teeth, "Get. The fuck. Over here."

Oda laughed with the girl some more before finally bidding her a farewell and running over to Kanou. "Hey, sorry, she's an old pal from middle school." he started walking in the direction of the route that the two took. "Let's go."

And of course, Kanou went. As he always did. But this time without saying anything and without making so much as a quick glance to Oda.

When the two were alone, walking on the street with no one to see them, Oda looked quizzically down at the pitcher. "What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem."

"Yeah, I bet. Tell me what's troubling you."

Kanou didn't reply. He just kept walking and picked up his speed a little.

"Hey, now, hold on! Was it Kagura?"

Kanou turned suddenly to face Oda. "Oh, so that's her name? Your 'friend'?" there was so much accusation on those words that Oda thought he would slap Kanou.

"That's what this is about? I talked to her for like five minutes!"

"Yeah, and laughed with her, and she touched you and stuff."

Oda couldn't believe what he was hearing. Sometimes, Kanou could just be too much. He just stared dumbfounded. "Are you serious right now?"

"As a heart attack." he turned back in the direction of his house and stormed off. "I don't like sharing!" he called back at Oda.

The taller of the two could've killed the pitcher. "You're glad I'm fond of you!" and he turned and decided on the long way home.

Silence between them wasn't rare, nor was it an often occurrence. Sometimes the quiet hurt, and sometimes it was simply the absence of unneeded conversation. But, this time, it was loss of words. It was wanting to say something but not knowing what to. Oda was beyond surprised to see that Kanou had yet to either storm out embarrassingly or turn on his side facing away from Oda to hide his face. Instead he just stared up at the ceiling on his side of the bed, Oda laying next to him doing the same. This… was different. And beautifully weird.

"Did… that just happen?"

Oda almost didn't hear it. Not because it was quietly said, which it was, but because he couldn't pry his focus from the past events.

He looked over to face the pitcher, who was now facing him. Seeing those bright eyes stare lazily at him brought him comfort. "What?"

"Did we just have one of those stupidly cheesy love confessions from the trashy romance novels at the grocery store?"

The tension, if any, was gone with Oda's hardy laugh in the middle of Kanou's sentence.

"I think we did." he said, recovering from his outburst. "Complete with the passionate sex and cheesy one-liners."

Kanou's blush came on que and Oda chuckled. "Hey, don't worry, I meant everything."

The two just stared at each other in quiet recollection for a second before Oda pulled his boyfriend into his arms. He held him like that for a moment before speaking again.

He smiled. "I love you."

"Oh, fuck you."

Typical. "Oh come on, don't ruin the mood."

Kanou burried his face in Oda's chest and grumbled. Oda just grinned and kissed the top of his messy head before raking his hands in his hair gently, causing Kanou to calm down and slip into half-consciousness. He wanted to sleep and then didn't at the same time, knowing how comforting it would be to fall asleep with his boyfriend but then knowing that sleeping would take time away from this… whatever this was… and though he didn't know what to call it he didn't want it to end. Maybe now, he thought, would be a good time to tell Oda he loved him too, that's usually how the shojo manga did it. Not that he would know…

"What would you do if I started calling you Shuugo?"

That broke Kanou suddenly from his trance and caused him to glare up at Oda angrily. "Don't even fucking try it."

Oda grinned at him, his fingers not leaving the messy bed hair. "I don't think lovers refer to one another as their last names."

"Okay fine, Hiroyuki."

Oda scowled in discomfort. "Yeah you're right, that's weird."

"I told you."

Oda thought about it some more as Kanou returned to his position with his face resting softly in Oda's t-shirt. "Mihashi calls you Sh-"

"He is the last person I want to talk about right now." he didn't look up this time, but from his tone Oda knew the pitcher meant it.

He didn't question it, though he really wanted to just so he could hear Kanou say something along the lines of wanting right now to be about them and only them.

"We'll have to do it eventually." the clean-up hitter mumbled, feeling tiredness try to slowly drag him down. He yawned into Kanou's hair. "I can't call you Kanou anymore when we're married."

The taller of the two boys grinned when he felt the heat of Kanou's face rise. The pitcher stuttered angrily for a while before trying to push his lover away, only to be met by the strong restraint of Oda's arms.

"Wh- I- I Never- I mean- The fuck? The fuck Oda?"

Oda lifted up the boy's face to meet his with a soft grip on his chin. "It was a joke. Shut the hell up." and he kissed him twice, once on the lips and once on the nose. "I love you, Shuugo Kanou."

The pitcher looked away from him, blushing. "Yeah, yeah, you told me."

Oda chuckled and kissed him again, this time a bit harder and a bit longer, before he released Kanou's chin and returned his arms around him. Expecting the shorter of the two to bury his face back in his chest, Oda was shocked when Kanou's eyes moved back to him.

"What?" Oda asked flatly, a bit confused. Kanou blinked.

"You mean that?" he asked quietly but firmly, as if he was interviewing Oda for a job position and asking him the most important question on the list.

The first baseman just looked at him, puzzled. "Well 'course I do." he replied just as quietly and just as firmly. "I've said it like, fifty times."

"That doesn't mean you mean it."

Oda's eye twitched. Kanou could be so unpredictable at times. "You don't believe me?" It wasn't sadness that was making Oda's voice crack, it was exhaustion and surprise.

Kanou rolled his eyes. "Not completely."

It was Oda's turn to roll his eyes. "Oh come the fuck on!" he hollered. "What is your deal? What do I have to do to prove it to you?"

The pitcher sighed in his arms and leaned up to kiss him silent. When he broke the kiss he stared deep into his boyfriend with the most serious of glares he could muster. "Give me time."

Oda took a deep breath and kissed his forehead. "Ok, whatever."

"I love you." Kanou whispered apologetically.

Oda smiled warmly at him before pulling him closer. "I love you, too. I always will."

The smell of his skin against his, the feeling of his lips on his shoulder, and the rhythmic raking of Oda's fingers through his hair all combined to make Kanou realize that he was wrong- he did believe him.

But that didn't mean he would let Oda know that any time soon.

Nyah. :3

So the firsts, just for documentation:First "I love you".

First kiss.

First words/Meeting each other.

First time.

First time Kanou completely trusted someone (even if it was brief) :3

First feelings of jealousy.

First discussions of the future.

OKAY, I hope you enjoyed that! R&R if you have the time.

-Lou