The Story Of Us (Todobaku)

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Katsuki was in the middle of throwing on his Tornados jersey when his cell phone rang. He didn't need to check the caller ID. There was only one person he knew apart from his parents that preferred to call instead of text.

"Hey E."

"Hey," Eijiro replied. Katsuki was too pumped about their plans for the day to notice the somber tone in his friend's voice.

He cushioned his phone between his ear and his shoulder as he applied cologne to his wrists. "What time do you think you'll be at my house? My parents want to leave by two at the latest."

Eijiro groaned into the phone. "I'm sorry bro, I'm not gonna be able to make it."

"What?" Katsuki set his cologne on his dresser to give Eijiro his full attention. "Why not?"

"I have strep throat," Eijiro said. "And a fever."

"Damn it."

Katsuki closed his eyes as Eijiro relayed the rest of his ailments. This wasn't how today was supposed to go.

Katsuki's parents bought tickets to a Tornados game, and purchased an extra ticket so Katsuki could bring a friend. Eijiro was the obvious choice, given he was Katsuki's best friend and the two had a mutual love of baseball. The boys had gone to Tornados games together in the past, but this one had a special condition attached to it.

Toshinori Yagi, the best baseball player in Japanese history and Katsuki's inspiration, announced earlier this year that he was retiring at the end of the season. And since it was the middle of September, meaning there was a little more than a month left in the season, this was Katsuki's last opportunity to see his hero wear a Tornados uniform in person. Masaru and Mitsuki spent a lot of money for these tickets so they'd get good seats, which added to the hype. As excited as Katsuki was, it sucked that his best friend had to miss it.

"You'll take pictures, won't you?" Eijiro said.

"Of course. Feel better, man."

"Thanks."

Katsuki sighed as he hung up. He wouldn't let this ruin his time at the game. Eijiro would be upset with him if he did. Still, his excitement wasn't as high as it was a few minutes prior.

His parents were already decked in their Tornados attire when Katsuki dragged his feet into the kitchen. Mitsuki opened her mouth to speak, but Katsuki cut her off.

"Eijiro's not coming," he said. "He's sick."

Mitsuki placed a hand on her heart. "Oh, that's terrible. Poor thing. You both were so excited about today."

Katsuki grunted and proceeded to sit at the table. He wasn't in the mood to offer a verbal response. Masaru, occupying the chair next to him, rubbed his son's shoulder.

"Do you want to try finding someone else to tag along? It'd be a shame to have a spare ticket go to waste."

"No," Katsuki whined as he pulled at his hair.

He did that a lot recently, lose patience with his parents. It was tough being twelve. His body was going through a lot of changes, some good, most bad. Unfortunately, for both Katsuki and his parents, one of those changes was increased irritability over the most minor of things. In this situation, Katsuki had to hold back from screaming at Masaru that he had said twice in the last week that none of his friends were in town today.

"I told you," he said with a scowl, "Denki's in Osaka with his grandparents. And Hanta sees a Spanish tutor on Saturdays."

"What about any of your baseball friends?"