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❧
When word reaches him that Kazuya is participating in college tryouts, Mei takes it as an invitation to go visit, even though Masa tells him that's definitely not what it is. But what else can it possibly be, except that Kazuya—who, let's face it, can be quite childish at times—needs a personal invitation to turn professional.
He's certainly good enough, and that's what Mei tells him when they're face to face. At first Kazuya only smiles. Mei has seen this smile before, so he already knows Kazuya isn't going to accept his invitation.
Then Kazuya tells him which university he's aiming for. He looks at Mei like the university is supposed to mean something to him. It doesn't. It's an okay school but it's been a long time since they won the All-Japan, although they did make it to the quarterfinals last year, thanks largely to their starting first year catcher—
Oh. No. Fuck no. Not fucking again.
Mei takes a deep breath. He pretends he's on the mound, in front of his whole team and the coaches, and the opposing team and everyone in the stands, and everyone watching on television and the internet too. He closes his eyes and takes a deep, deep, deep breath.
He tilts his chin up to meet Kazuya's eyes when he opens his own again. He can't bring himself to smile, which makes Kazuya's smile even more infuriating. Mei starts to ask why Kazuya is doing this but he already knows, so he clamps down on the pointless question as his jaw slides off-center. It does not make any fucking sense. Because: "You can never play on the same field at the same time as him, Kazuya!"
Kazuya just grins and refuses to understand even though he says he knows that, and Mei could weep at all the ways Kazuya is cheating himself out of what he could have. "It would be different if one of you were a pitcher but as it is, you can never form a battery with him!"
As expected, Kazuya has nothing to say to that. Mei wants to stomp off and call Masa and tell him about what stupid Kazuya has done this time—except he can't because Masa told him not to go see Kazuya about this. "Just go your own way," Masa said, "and let him go his. You'll meet again when you're meant to." But Mei doesn't want to meet when they're meant to; he wants to meet when he wants to, which is right fucking now.
The gaze between them holds, elongating the moment.
Mei blinks and, even though the gaze doesn't break, time starts moving forward again.
"You're going to regret telling me this, Kazuya."
Kazuya grins. Of course he does.
That stupid grin slides right off his face the following spring, when he shows up for the first day of training camp at his chosen university—and so does Mei.
Who's smiling now, Kazuya?
(As it turns out: all three of them. But that is a story for another day.)