Ship: oikawa tooru/kageyama tobio Fandom: haikyuu!! Major Tags: none Other Tags: baseball au, yes i just used catchers' mitts as a symbolic stand-in for guns, what of it, Word Count: 425 words
i got really emotional thinking about them as catchers and thinking about how they would compare to miyuki and chris and now i'm just really emotional about catchers and setters and here just take this
***
The day Kageyama Tobio picks up a catcher's mitt, Oikawa feels his center of balance shift.
He watches, carefully, studiously, tells himself there's no harm in his junior trying it out before he settles on something different—it often happens, someone getting it in their head they'd be a good fit before realizing the position isn't flashy enough (and that with Oikawa around they're unlikely to get play time) and they move on to something different.
But then coach puts him in the bullpen.
Then he puts him in with the relief pitcher at the end of a practice game when they're five points up, and Oikawa watches with hands clenched around the gate in front of the dugout.
Iwaizumi's reassurances—"Coach is just testing the waters, trying something new"—fall on deaf ears as Kageyama manages to get a swinging strikeout to end the game.
"You know that was their worst batter at the end, right?" Iwaizumi asks him as they pack up.
He schools his features into a bright smile, directs it right at Iwaizumi. "I'm fine, Iwa-chan, stop fussing!"
When he finds Kageyama in the practice barn late that night, after everyone's left, he watches Tobio's swing for a few minutes.
Oikawa will always maintain that he was the first to get a sense for the depth of Tobio's potential—the extent of it. He wouldn't be shaken up over a non-threat, after all, and the ownership of that knowledge is something like a comfort.
Knowing it, at least, means he can prepare himself.
He steps into the light, and Tobio notices immediately, going still for a moment before he drops his stance, bat held slack at his side.
Oikawa leans against the edge of the door. "I want you to know something," he says. "You don't pick up the catcher's mitt halfheartedly. You don't wear it half-heartedly."
It's not just the gear that's heavy.
Tobio blinks up at him with those blue, blue eyes, and Oikawa scoffs. "Don't waste anyone's time if you're not going to put everything into it, Tobio-chan."
He leaves without another word.
Three years later, he watches Tobio from the dugout during a practice game, wearing Seijou mint to Tobio's Karasuno's black.
Just like last time, Iwaizumi is next to him, watching just as closely as Oikawa.
Just like last time, Kageyama calls his pitcher—Asahi Azumane, supposedly one of the most timid and inconsistent pitchers in the prefecture—through an inning without a single hit.
On the gate in front of him, Oikawa's knuckles go white.
FILL: TEAM KURAMOCHI YOUICHI/MIYUKI KAZUYA, G
Fandom: haikyuu!!
Major Tags: none
Other Tags: baseball au, yes i just used catchers' mitts as a symbolic stand-in for guns, what of it,
Word Count: 425 words
i got really emotional thinking about them as catchers and thinking about how they would compare to miyuki and chris and now i'm just really emotional about catchers and setters and here just take this
***
The day Kageyama Tobio picks up a catcher's mitt, Oikawa feels his center of balance shift.
He watches, carefully, studiously, tells himself there's no harm in his junior trying it out before he settles on something different—it often happens, someone getting it in their head they'd be a good fit before realizing the position isn't flashy enough (and that with Oikawa around they're unlikely to get play time) and they move on to something different.
But then coach puts him in the bullpen.
Then he puts him in with the relief pitcher at the end of a practice game when they're five points up, and Oikawa watches with hands clenched around the gate in front of the dugout.
Iwaizumi's reassurances—"Coach is just testing the waters, trying something new"—fall on deaf ears as Kageyama manages to get a swinging strikeout to end the game.
"You know that was their worst batter at the end, right?" Iwaizumi asks him as they pack up.
He schools his features into a bright smile, directs it right at Iwaizumi. "I'm fine, Iwa-chan, stop fussing!"
When he finds Kageyama in the practice barn late that night, after everyone's left, he watches Tobio's swing for a few minutes.
Oikawa will always maintain that he was the first to get a sense for the depth of Tobio's potential—the extent of it. He wouldn't be shaken up over a non-threat, after all, and the ownership of that knowledge is something like a comfort.
Knowing it, at least, means he can prepare himself.
He steps into the light, and Tobio notices immediately, going still for a moment before he drops his stance, bat held slack at his side.
Oikawa leans against the edge of the door. "I want you to know something," he says. "You don't pick up the catcher's mitt halfheartedly. You don't wear it half-heartedly."
It's not just the gear that's heavy.
Tobio blinks up at him with those blue, blue eyes, and Oikawa scoffs. "Don't waste anyone's time if you're not going to put everything into it, Tobio-chan."
He leaves without another word.
Three years later, he watches Tobio from the dugout during a practice game, wearing Seijou mint to Tobio's Karasuno's black.
Just like last time, Iwaizumi is next to him, watching just as closely as Oikawa.
Just like last time, Kageyama calls his pitcher—Asahi Azumane, supposedly one of the most timid and inconsistent pitchers in the prefecture—through an inning without a single hit.
On the gate in front of him, Oikawa's knuckles go white.