The phrase "I like you" must have grown wings and jumped out of Hanai's mouth, because there is no way in all hell that he meant to say it out loud.

It's just after practice, the summer sun touching the horizon just behind Nishiura's baseball diamond, casting an orange glow on the entirety of the field when it happens, when Hanai's shoving bats into a bat bag and Tajima's blabbing about--something. In fact, Hanai had tuned him out completely, finding himself perfectly fine to think about the practice that just happened (it went well; Tajima hit a dinger to right field that made Momokan look like she was going to cry tears of joy) and his teammates (how he can improve everyone's individual strengths, how he could keep hitting to match up to Tajima's strength, how to put his strengths to best use on the field) and then.

"Dude. What?"

And then it happened. Hanai looks up, feeling the color simultaneously drain from his face and heat up his cheeks at the same time as he realizes that his stupid thoughts-- his stupid thoughts about Tajima--have come out of his mouth.

"What?" He tries back, going for a look that he hopes is less "going to vomit on your shoes" and more "casually annoyed" than anything else. (He fails.)

Tajima grins at him, in this way that lights up his face; the orange light of the sunset makes his freckles stand out. (Hanai hates himself.) "You liiiike me. That's what you said, right?"

That's it. That's his chance to escape. If Hanai wanted to, he could scold him for not listening properly and hearing things he wanted to hear--but wouldn't that make it worse, anyway? Wouldn't he be digging himself a deeper ditch? Sure, he wanted the dugout to open up and swallow him whole at the moment, but it would just make it worse. Tajima was...single minded (kind of dumb) and wouldn't let him forget it, anyway, and it's not like he didn't...mean it, right?

Hanai squares his shoulders. "Yeah?" He starts, trying to sound his toughest--it would work a thousand times better if he didn't feel his entire face burning like it was on fire. "So what?"

Tajima looks at him oddly for a second, brows crinkling, and then he smiles, lifting a shoulder in a shrug as he goes back to the bat bag. "Okay."

Talk about being thrown for a loop.

"Wait, what?" Okay? Okay, what does he mean by okay? Hanai's hand twitches on the bag, but as he opens his mouth to start asking him questions, Tajima takes two steps towards him and slaps him in the shoulder with his glove.

"I said, okay. Me too. " It's so blasé that Hanai's thrown for a loop, and he has exactly enough time to give Tajima the most confused/embarrassed/horrified look he can manage before Tajima beams at him and starts to walk away. "Let's go get food. I'm starving!"

Hanai stares after him for a second, the words washing over him and finding no purchase--eventually, it clicks what he says, and he feels the heat spread to the back of his neck and prickle to his shoulders, and it's only Tajima calling, cheerful as ever, "You're buying, since it's our first date and all!! And I'm not cheap!!" that gets him going again, with that mix of exasperation and fondness that belongs to Tajima and Tajima alone.