Work Text:
“He kinda looks like Nori-senpai, doesn’t he?” Eijun asks, his head tilted and one eye closed as he studies the squirrel in front of him, slowly eating and minding his business under a big tall tree.
Furuya simply nods, crouched down as he studies the little animals behind the glass. He made himself as small as the children next to him. His eyes shine, twinkling and making Eijun’s heart skip a beat, when the squirrel stops mouching of his food and looks up to the crowd of humans, cheeks full and judgmental black tiny eyes. All the children (and Furuya and Eijun) go “Ooooooh,” as the squirrel (whose name is Petey) moves slowly, studying the situation. He keeps looking at Eijun. It’s a weird sensation, being stared down by a squirrel. He kinda used to it.
“I think he is Nori-senpai, actually,” he murmurs to himself.
He takes a deep breath and he looks back at Furuya, a child half his age talking about animals as he listens, interested.
Eijun feels jittery, his palms are sweaty and not only from the summer heat, and he can’t stop biting his lips or ruin the zoo map that the kind man at the ticket office gave him. It’s all crumpled and he’s sure he ripped the penguins off of it. He’s nervous because he is on a date with Furuya Satoru and this is embarrassing because this isn’t their first date and they have been together for a few months now. Like, together, together . They literally kissed. On the lips. Multiple times.
But now, they are outside of school and everything feels real , for lack of a better word. At school they (Eijun) don’t (doesn’t) have the time to think about the fact he is dating his rival on the field between class and practice and the capability of Miyuki Kazuya to ruin the peace Eijun and Furuya are trying to achieve in their new relationship.
Plus, he hates how Furuya is more calm and collected than him, right now. He makes him… angry. Harucchi’s voice comes to his mind telling him to not get worked up on petty things like this, not everything is a competition, Eijun-kun . Yeah, he’s right, little Harucchi, but Eijun doesn’t really care about it. He’s immature. He knows. Everyone keeps telling him that. He doesn’t like losing to Furuya even in their relationship, this is why he asked him on a date outside school on their first and only free day in all of summer, beating Furuya to it. Eijun thought he was going to be at least shocked or happy, but Furuya just said, “Okay, let’s go to the zoo.”
They are at the zoo, now, and Eijun feels like his heart wants to escape his ribcage because he’s on a date with his boyfriend slash rival and he’s scared to… he doesn’t know, but he feels a little bit light headed.
Maybe it’s the hot weather. Maybe he should’ve stayed home. This morning, Kuramochi-senpai didn’t say anything to him, he just looked at him and nodded him goodbye when he was leaving. Bad sign. On a normal day, Kuramochi-senpai would have wrestled him to death because he got a date before his senpai.
He pouts, thoughtlessly.
“Eijun, let’s go to see the polar bears now,” Furuya says, something different in his voice as he stands up and stretches his unfairly long limbs. He touches Eijun on the shoulder with his fingertips, a gentle touch against Eijun’s bare skin, “Are you okay?” He tips his head down, to look better at Eijun’s face. Eijun can see his pink lips and flushed cheeks and too long eyelashes framing dark blue eyes and…
“Yeah!” Eijun runs away from his face and hands, voice too loud, “I’m fine, I’m fine!”
“You were pouting,” Furuya shrugs, “Like you were thinking. Or you were upset about something.”
Eijun blushes. He is usually an open book, his expression too easy to understand and his habit to wear his heart on his sleeve making him vulnerable, but Furuya is too good at reading him, too quickly and too accurately.
“I’m fine, I said,” Eijun insists.
“Okay, I believe you,” Furuya backs down, for now.
He starts saying goodbye to all the children like they are his schoolmates. Eijun does it too, waving his hand faster than one of the little boys. He looks at Furuya with the corner of his eyes. Expression blank. Eijun has difficulties in understanding Furuya. It’s not like he doesn’t try, and now, knowing Furuya better, he knows what some of his peculiar behaviours mean; Furuya is also more comfortable around him, he speaks up and that helps a lot more of trying to decipher his almost nonexistent body language.
“Polar bears?” Eijun asks.
Furuya nods, “Polar bears.”
They leave squirrels too Nori-senpai like and screaming youth behind. They walk around the park, animals and families all around them, the back of their hands brushing against each other. It’s a Sunday, and the sun is high and strong. Furuya tries to wipe out the sweat on his forehead with his shirt.
“Why did you wear a long sleeve shirt?” Eijun bumps on propose against Furuya, “It’s too hot.”
“My skin will burn,” Furuya replies as he uses the map he stole from Eijun as a fan. His cheeks are more red than before. It makes Eijun a little worried.
“This is why I have an umbrella and a fifty plus sunscreen in my backpack,” Eijun laughs, “Actually, I think you are getting sunburnt for real. And you should’ve worn that shirt Miyuki-senpai gave to you.”
He is starting to feel a little bit calmer now.
“But it was old. This one is new, my mom bought it for me,” Furuya says back.
“It’s not like you needed to dress fancy,” Eijun pushes him on a free bench. Furuya doesn’t complain as he sits. Eijun unzips his backpack and takes out the sunscreen. He fits himself between Furuya’s legs, “We are at the zoo, anyway. And I’m wearing one of Kuramochi-senpai’s tank tops.”
He raises his head, looking at Eijun, his bangs messy and his eyes serious.
“We are on a date. I have to look good, right? For you.”
Eijun almost chokes on his saliva. His heart race starts acting up again. This Furuya Satoru is going to be the death of him. Making him worried, making him angry, or over competitive or too in love that he can’t work properly and he already has issues on his own with that.
“Furuya,” he ignores him, “I’m putting this,” he holds up the sunscreen, “On your face.”
Furuya nods, “Fine. I forgot to do it this morning.”
“You dumbass, this is why your face is on fire,” Eijun shakes his head, hands full of cream as he uses his fingers to gently put it on Furuya’s soft face. He tries his best to not make the situation worse. He tries to be slow and careful, something that’s hard for him because of the hard calluses on his hands, a result of pitching and matching the ones on Furuya’s hands, and his famous over the top enthusiasm, that makes him dangerous of fucking it up.
It’s relaxing, though, even if Eijun never did something like this. Intimate . He should be embarrassed. They are in the open, where everyone can see them, but he doesn’t care. Furuya doesn’t care either. His eyes are closed and Eijun feels his breath on his skin. He tries to cover every part of Furuya’s face with an even layer of sunscreen, hoping not to make his boyfriend look like a ghost. Even if that could be fun. Furuya’s skin is already pale as it is. It doesn’t need anything else.
He tries to take a step back to admire his hand work but Furuya hugs him with his legs, crossing them behind Eijun.
“Furuya, let me go,” Eijun could get away if he wanted. He doesn’t.
“Tell me what’s wrong, then,” Furuya locks his arms around Eijun’s waist, too, bringing him closer to his body. It’s hot and they are sweaty, but it’s comfortable. They are used to this.
“Nothing’s wrong. We should go, they are going to close the polar bears area if we don’t.”
“They can wait,” Furuya’s hold tightens.
Eijun can’t believe him. He literally couldn’t stop talking about the polar bears on the bus that brought them here. And now he’s willing to not see them because Eijun pouted once.
Fuck Furuya Satoru. Eijun is going to marry him.
“No, they can’t,” Eijun lowers down, making their forehead touches, and he comes clean because he wants to see Furuya’s face when he sees the polar bears, his eyes shining like stars in a clear night in Nagano, and hear him talk Eijun’s ears off about them, “I got lost in old habits and I was nervous because this is our real date outside of Seidou and you know, it’s quite different when you are not in the baseball club’s cafeteria with all of your friends around. And then I got a little angry because I was nervous and you weren’t. I’m sorry.”
Furuya hums, “That’s not true. I’m really nervous. Ono-senpai and Kaoru had to help me fall asleep last night.”
“Are you serious?” Eijun snickers.
“You ask them. They probably hate me. And you are right, it feels real. I’m glad it does.”
Eijun smiles as Furuya kisses his cheek, “I’m glad too.”
“Are we okay?” Furuya lets him go, but he has his hands on Eijun’s bare forearms, going up and down.
“We are okay.”
“Polar bears,” Furuya declares, getting up so fast that his head spins for the sudden movement and the heat. He holds into Eijun.
“If you survive, sure.”