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"I think my arm's gone dead."
He feels Chris move, but tightens his grip, determined to keep their huddle together on the couch going for as long as possible.
"I didn't say you were allowed to move," Eijun complains.
"You said your arm was dead, and I don't want you to be uncomfortable. We've got to protect the moneymaker." There's that hint of teasing in his low voice that Eijun wouldn't know what to do without. Then he feels fingers in his hair, and a soft touch of lips at the corner of his own, and cracks an eye.
Chris is watching him with a naked fondness that he swears doesn't choke him up every single time. (It does).
It's understandable though, Eijun is just one man, with one man's body, and his feelings are so, so big sometimes they feel like they don't all fit inside it, so them leaking out like that is totally normal.
Especially his feelings for Chris. Even one single emotion might have been enough to overflow on it's own, but Chris had evoked so many different feelings in him over the years, from their very first meeting…
If anyone had asked what those emotions were after said first meeting, and in the first days of their relationship, he'd have said dislike, and then resentment and maybe even hatred.
The problem had been with their personalities, of course, they were fire and ice, Eijun had been young; a straightforward – and maybe even sheltered – boy who had seen the world in absolute terms of black and white, and his quicksilver emotions were always on show for whoever cared to see; Chris however had been more mature and infinitely wiser, and a very private person who didn't beg for understanding from someone who misconstrued his actions, whether wilfully, or through ignorance and a lack of ability to look deeper beneath the surface.
Eijun had learned important lesson after important lesson from his relationship with Chris, everything from the emotional and logical, including that sometimes he needed to assess things critically and read between the lines; to the much more practical and physical baseball related skills.
Chris had had such a positive influence on his life, there would be no wonder to anyone that those initial negative feelings had turned into respect, then gratitude, and eventually into devotion.
"My arm's not in danger yet. Do you know how difficult it is to get you to keep still long enough to bestow affection on you?"
Chris is always busy, always doing something, usually juggling three or four other things at any given time. Eijun blames his time at high school for setting the precedence of his life. None of them had questioned how much time, effort, and ability it had taken for one guy to manage a third year's study workload with a brutal rehabilitation schedule and the hours and hours he'd ploughed into a club he'd see no benefit from himself, for the sake of the friends and teammates he couldn't fight beside personally.
"I don't want to hear that from you, Sawamura Eijun," Chris complains, "I get tired just thinking about the levels of energy you expend every single day."
"That's not the same." Although it probably was. Maybe? "Also I will always be available to glomp all over my better half when given the opportunity, which isn't as often as I should be, if I do say so myself."
"Always so dramatic. And we really should sort dinner." Despite those treacherous words, the next kiss lands on Eijun's forehead, and that absolutely doesn't sway his determination to stay put even slightly.
"I don't want dinner I wanna stay here," he whines.
"What if I want dinner?"
He checks Chris's face, trying to divine his sincerity, because sometimes Chris's teasing is so deadpan he has trouble telling. "That's different. But do you?" Chris knows well enough how to manipulate him. Eijun considers himself to be a fairly simple creature in all honesty so it isn't really that difficult, but Chris's needs will always hold weight with him.
"I'm ambivalent for the moment," Chris admits, and that's all that Eijun needs to hear.
"That means you have no excuse to escape my clutches, then."
"Certainly none that seem really pressing right now," Chris agrees, as Eijun nuzzles at his jaw.
He takes advantage of Chris's unusual willingness to sit still without baseball-related distractions to enjoy the calm for a few minutes. But the talk of food has reminded him of something he needs to disclose to his partner.
"Oh, Animal-san wants us to have dinner with him some time next week, by the way, and I said Friday would be fine." Eijun tries to drop it into their conversation casually, but Chris's brows dip into a frown. Probably because Eijun, as ever, has terrible timing.
"That shouldn't be a problem; Dad didn't send me the message though." It is more usual for his father to message them both, but there's a very specific reason for Animal not to include his son in this message.
Although there was very little chance Chris wouldn't comment on his father's approach this time, it had been decided it was better to present him with a fait accompli.
"Because he's found another photo album from when you were a kid, and he knew you'd be mean and try to keep me from accessing such a treasure trove of Chris lore," Eijun explains, trying to keep his tone offhand, as if that could sneak it past Chris.
"We're not going." Chris's tone is flat, and Eijun feels him begin to pull away, but tightens his arms again. Chris is obviously not very serious in his intent as he remains in place, because if he'd wanted to he'd have wriggled free easily.
"I definitely am. You'd have to tie me up to stop me. And even then I'd chew through the ropes and crawl a hundred miles."
"They're really not worth that kind of effort, Eijun." Chris's mouth turns up at the corner in amusement though. "Who would have known you two would turn into such willing co-conspirators after such a rocky start?"
"Umm, we don't mention the before times in this house."
"Turnabout is fairplay," Chris teases him, and at Eijun's look he lets out a soft little huff. "Fine, I won't mention the time you pitched my poor father's book across the physio room so hard that you almost hit the janitor out in the corridor with it."
"You literally just did." This time it's Eijun's voice that's deadpan, and Chris chuckles.
"My mistake."
"Hmph."
He can't keep up that pretence for long though.
"The truth is your dad suffered the consequences of getting between me and you that day, I can't help that I'm a focussed guy with his eyes on the prize."
"You do have a tendency to tunnel vision," Chris allows, trying to keep a straight face even as he see's Eijun's expression.
"My honest and heartfelt feelings for Chris-senpai were what helped me win Animal-san over in the end. Although a part of me wonders if his blessing was just given to hand over responsibility for his sarcastic son."
"Fair," Chris's lips are still twitching as he continues the fight to keep his amusement 'hidden'.
Eijun is the one who caves first with a pout, but it's soon replaced by a grin. "Either way Animal-san is dealing the good stuff next week. I've been promised bad haircuts, gap-toothed grins, an obligatory bath shot, and the cutest little slugger to ever stand in the batter's box."
"Did you ever think Dad's just exaggerating because he's my dad, and no parent is normal about their kid?"
"Nope, your dad and I are of one mind when it comes to how adorable baby Chris was, and still is, actually."
"Would you be acting like this if the tables were turned and I was the one getting access to all your embarrassing baby photos?" Chris wants to know with a raised eyebrow.
"Ask away, Mom would do anything for you, and even if that wasn't the case she'd leap at the chance to share old photos of me. Your threat holds no power; I'm not insecure about them, I was a very cute baby, extremely round and bouncy."
While he might exaggerate how secure he is about his baby pictures, he definitely isn't exaggerating how much his family think of Chris; they'd welcomed him with open arms, which Eijun had expected of course – if he loved Chris, there was no way his family wouldn't feel the same way – but that hadn't stopped Chris being an absolute mess of nerves the first time he'd introduced them.
Before that meeting, the first and only time Eijun had seen him be anything but impossibly confident had been a little wobble in the first match they'd formed a battery in together; something about that sort-of friend of his with the obnoxious blonde hair and snarky mouth – Zaizen – had really gotten Chris rattled, but other than that one time, Chris has never shown the slightest sign of anything other than perfect composure, so it had been a little bit of a shock to see him in pieces over something as mundane as meeting Eijun's relatives.
They hadn't allowed Chris to stay nervous though, and treated him as one of the family from the first moment of their meeting.
His grandfather adores having someone as knowledgeable about baseball as Chris is to talk the sport with, and has a tendency to try and monopolise his time during visits. His mom will have to fight her father-in-law for enough of Chris's time to show him Eijun's baby pictures, if she intends to.
"I'm no match for Eijun's self-possession."
Chris's mocking words pull him out of his memory, to see Chris watching him with that soft look in his hazel eyes again.
He summons up his brightest, widest grin, because this feeling, that has only ever grown and grown inside him, deserves this sincere demonstration of his complete happiness. "Exactly, just go with the flow. I'm going to see that album no matter what, so if you just relax and don't stress about it, then you'll have the full Eijun experience."
The final kiss lands on Eijun's mouth as he finishes speaking, catching him off guard for a few precious seconds, before Chris pulls back with what might be a smug smile, but also might not. But probably is.
"Then I'll try my best, I am rather fond of the full Eijun experience, after all..."