EVENT: The Game Begins! (Pre-game through Inning 3)

[mod_calls_lead]

After closing ceremonies, there was some scrambling and gnashing of teeth as people with tickets to the Lions game were separated from people without them. The group that was going was pushed towards the shuttle bus, which took off for the park as soon as everyone was safely in place. A representative of the online network stood, distributing

Comments

[yutotally]

As the surge and flow of people pushed and yanked him along, Sakaeguchi couldn't deny the excitement in his heart. While he certainly appreciated the... gravity of the closing ceremonies (after all it meant Koushien was a dream for another year) they were also pretty unbearably dull and he'd been nodding off in his seat despite the noise of the crowd around him. He supposed it was for the best though as surely he would be well rested to enjoy the Lion's game now

[no_hiding_place]

Across three people it was pretty hard to talk, but Mihashi, once he got to his seat and saw Sakaeguchi, managed to wave. Sakaeguchi always greeted Mihashi in the mornings, so he hoped that greeting him outside of school or practice was okay -- but since he'd gotten that email about the tickets, he figured he wouldn't offend anyone by trying to say hello.

Hit with what was either a flash of inspiration or a moment of true ridiculousness, Mihashi dug his phone out of his bag and sent Sakaeguchi a text message. Even though there were only three seats between them, it felt like a long way. Pros, he wrote, are really polished, aren't they?

Mihashi had the distinct impression that everyone on the field was playing sharp. It felt like a whole different level! ... Probably because it was, what with the players being pros and all, but Mihashi was impressed.

[yutotally]

Oh! There was Mihashi! Sakaegushi shot him a big smile and waved back at him, bending forward a bit so he could see past the three people between them. It would have been rude to shout across them unfortunately so he supposed they wouldn't be having much conversation...

He noticed Mihashi pulling his phone out and tapping something into it then JUMPED as his phone vibrated in his pocket, opening it up and reading the note, laughing lightly at the simple solution to their problem. He tapped a response back.

'Yeah, they really don't seem to waste much energy when they move around! Everything from sliding to swinging is so fluid.'

Certainly none of the players tripped over themselves or spun themselves into a sitting position when trying to bat.

[no_hiding_place]

We might be facing teams with a guy like this on them, at Koushien, Mihashi wrote.

A moment later he sent another message, I've gotta work harder! I don't want to give up hits.

He shrugged up his shoulders a little. It was scary to think that some of the kids who went to Koushien got picked in the draft for the pro teams before even going to college. And to think that the guys out there had probably been to Koushien at some point, too, was amazing. Mihashi had known they'd set an amazing goal for themselves as a team, but watching a pro game changed the scope of it!

Who the hell chose these seating arrangements??

[abetakaya2]

"Eh?" Abe said, approaching his seat. "I'm on the end of the row?"
He immediately regretted saying it out loud, thinking, duh, it's seat number one, isn't it? Shun gave him a look that communicated something similar.

That's what you get for reserving your tickets before everyone else.

Guess I don't get to sit next to Mihashi, he thought. Then he thought it might be for the better. What with... everything and all.

He wondered, though, who was going to be in the seats in front of him and to the side of Shun. Hopefully, Mihashi would nearby. He could confer about pitches with him. And Ideally, Haruna would not even be there, considering he didn't want to deal with his post-imaginary-confession-bullshit that he was likely to bring with him by the bucket-full -- but being realistic, Haruna would probably be there, because he was inconvenient like that, and so Abe settled for hoping Haruna was simply seated far, far away.

He wasn't holding his breath as the rest of the "Dreamers" started finding their seats around him.

Re: Who the hell chose these seating arrangements??

[the_worst_ace]

As if on comedic cue, Haruna shows up, best bud Akimaru trailing behind him, with a backpack probably filled with stupid vegetables and a handful of snacks, all suspiciously healthier than they technically had to be

Re: Who the hell chose these seating arrangements??

[abetakaya2]

Abe met Haruna's eyes and took the slowest, most drawn out breath of his life.

Figures. he thought, watching Haruna an Akimaru hover over their seats, which were obviously right next to Shun.

Abe stood up, because he figured he'd get scolded for not standing to address his senpai or something, and gestured at Shun.

"Motoki. This is my brother, Abe Shun. Shun, surely you remember Mo- Haruna-san?"

Abe spared a moment to give Akimaru a sympathetic wave as he put down his backpack with a heavy thud, surely full of terrible snacks that Haruna had demanded he bring.

"And next to him is Akimaru-san, his..." Abe wasn't sure what would be the most appropriate descriptor, what with lackey being the first word to come to mind, "catcher. And friend."

Re: Who the hell chose these seating arrangements??

[the_good_egg]

"Haruna-san!" Shun exclaimed, beaming as he stood and gave one of his idols a respectful if excited bow. "Of course I remember Haruna-san! And Akimaru-san is here too, hello!" He gave a second bow and then waited for everyone else to sit before he did.

As soon as he sat down, Shun was veritably vibrating in his seat. As if it wasn't exciting enough to be at a Lions game with no adults, just Taka-nii! Now he got to sit next to Haruna-san too. "If it's not too much work, could you point out all the ninja moves the pitchers make when they do them? I bet you could spot them really well! And Taka-nii and Akimaru-san can tell us about the catchers' ninja moves too," he added. Haruna-san had said Akimaru-san wasn't a very good ninja, but Shun didn't want to leave anybody out and he probably knew more about catching than Shun did anyway. And Taka knew lots of ninja catcher moves, so he could be really helpful!

[no_hiding_place]

Mihashi had fluttered around in nervous anticipation, excited to meet up with Kanou again since their practice game together. Even the prospect of sitting next to his former tormentor wasn't such a scary thought, knowing that Kanou was probably going to be on the lookout and that Izumi was going to be nearby, too. Hatake was still scary, but Mihashi believed his apology, so maybe this was, finally, another chance to really enjoy baseball together with some of his old teammates again - without competition, which Mihashi thought was a pretty refreshing thought.

He decided, before heading down to his seat, to flutter around at the top of the stairs - at least, until one of the ushers asked to see his ticket and told him not to block the flow of traffic, once he confirmed that Mihashi did, in fact, belong where he was. That sent him to his seat quickly enough, even though he twisted around in his chair, trying to absorb the bustle of the stadium, keep an eye on the field, and watch for his friends all at once.

[fork_u_up]

"Ren! I saw you at closing ceremonies, but then I lost you before I could say hi! How have you been? You look good," Kanou said, grin plastered across his face as he stood and waved to Ren across Oda's and Hatake's seats. It'd been a long while since they'd seen each other face-to-face, and the first time he'd gotten to call Mihashi Ren out loud instead of through texts or emails since they were little. It made him feel like all those intervening years hadn't happened, or at least weren't holding them back anymore.

[no_hiding_place]

"Sh-Shuu-chan!" Mihashi practically chirped with delight when he saw his friend. "C,cere-mony, you ... d-didn't -- h-have to come!" He was worried that he hadn't met up with Kanou there, because he honestly hadn't thought that Kanou would come all the way from Gunma that early. Still, he was too excited to just sit there when Kanou was standing, and he popped up out of his seat, clutching his shirt-front with one hand and holding the other one up and out in front of him like he wasn't sure if he should be covering his mouth or shaking Kanou's hand or even giving him a hug.

Mihashi sort of wanted to give him a hug. That was probably too weird, though, since they'd only resolved everything recently and they were rivals now, and of course people didn't hug their rivals. "You look --" Mihashi started, and nodded when he decided on the word. "H-happy!"

[fork_u_up]

Hearing Ren call him Shuu-chan was about five times better than reading it on his phone, too. Kanou's face felt like it was about to split from smiling so much.

"I wanted to see if you'd get any awards," Kanou admitted, laughing as he stepped around Oda and stood in front of Hatake's seat to talk to Ren. It was just for a minute and the game hadn't even started yet; Hatake could go without a view for that long. "Next time you will, right? I want to see you on that stage!"

He took Ren's awkwardly outstretched arm and pulled him in for a brief hug. He meant it to be a manly hug, not touching a lot and a pat on the back, the end--but there wasn't a whole lot of room and he got a little too enthusiastic. It ended up being a tight squeeze and a let's-not-fall-over steadying pat before Kanou pulled away. A little awkward but it'd felt nice. "I am happy, I guess. Yeah." I get to sit next to Oda, he didn't add. Because he knew enough about his feelings to know that it was probably weird to be so happy about that. "What about you? You're

[jundere]

Junta had gone ahead of Riou and Kazuki because he was still somewhat disgruntled over having had them gang up on him when they were obviously supposed to be making him cakes. He was going to let Riou worry that maybe he had decided not to go along, and let Kazuki to fret about the cost of the ticket. Maybe that was mean.

Still, once he got to the fourth row in the proper section, he decided it was easier to get to where he needed to be by coming from the higher numbers down. He didn't know what kind of bottleneck there was on the other end, but it appeared to involve Nishiura's injured catcher and Musashino's Haruna, which meant that Riou would probably be pouting for a good portion of the game. Riou pouting was always amusing

[riousgeneration]

“Aa~, where’s Jun-san?” complained Riou, changing his large bag from one hand to the other. “Kazu-sa~n, do you think he might’ve decided not to come just because he’s still giving us the cold shoulder?”

[kawainotkowai]

Kazuki grinned and patted Riou’s shoulder, hitching his own bag up on his shoulder. “Don’t worry too much. He’ll show up eventually. He wouldn’t risk not getting cake and homemade bento.” He said it with the cool assurance of a man who knew whereof he spoke.

[riousgeneration]

“He’s totally avoiding us,” Riou mourned. “He wouldn’t talk to me the whole of today. It feels weird when he isn’t constantly getting in digs at me.” He considered his statement and hastily added, “Not that I like getting teased or anything, okay, so don’t get ideas!”

[fork_u_up]

After the Koshien closing ceremonies had ended (without Ren getting any awards, which was really what Kanou had been hoping to see) Kanou managed to lose sight of Ren in the crowd. It was one of the few times he had to acknowledge he wasn’t as big as most everyone else. Undaunted, Kanou made a beeline for the shuttles, urging Oda and Hatake to keep up so they could get to the Lions game as quickly as possible. He wanted to see his childhood friend again and say hello. The prospect of sitting right next to Oda for an entire game was exciting too, though for different reasons. (Reasons he had yet to fully examine.)

Peering over Hatake’s shoulder at his ticket, Kanou saw he’d gotten seat 3… while he was currently holding seat 4 for himself. “Trade!” he said to Oda, holding out his ticket and looking meaningfully up at his friend. Which was to say, scowling and pouting at the same time.

[kansaidburns]

"Hai hai." Oda dutifully handed over his own ticket and plucked Kanou's from his fingers. He patted Kanou's shoulder and smiled slightly. He didn't mind sitting between Kanou and Hatake-- Hatake was a nice enough guy and Kanou... well. Oda liked spending time with kanou, regardless of what they were doing.

[fork_u_up]

Kanou's expression changed like the sun breaking through impending thunderclouds--the scowl vanished as he beamed at Oda and happily gave his new ticket to the collector. Seat 5, next to Oda and not Hatake. The day could hardly get any better. Not that he didn't like Hatake; he was alright if annoying sometimes. He just felt like he spent enough time around the guy all week. Oda was... different. Better. Good to be around all the time.

As the Mihoshi boys made their way to their seats, Kanou saw that a bunch of other people were already there--Mihashi included. Grin firmly plastered onto his face, Kanou excused himself and the others as they disturbed one other person and entered their row.