Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 21: The blonde Baseball Idiot (Part 2)

"Kaz?!"

"Huh? Uhm... Yeah?"

"You call him Kaz?!"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"No fair! No fair! No fair!" Narumiya whined, much to Sora's amusement. "You don't know how long it took me to be able to call him Kazuya and for him to call me Mei! He simply rejected me each and every single time I tried to become closer with him. I can't believe he lets you give him a nickname now! Such a traitor! Just you wait, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind next time I see him!"

He gulped down his cold sweet tea in one go and slammed the glass back on the table in irritation.

"Ah! And I can't even have you call me a nickname too, since my first name is already short! Oh, Kazuya, I hate you!"

(At the same time Miyuki Kazuya was standing in the kitchen of his home and was preparing lunch for himself and something to put away for later for his always hard-working father, when he suddenly had to sneeze very heavily...)

Sora showed the blonde male a mischievous smirk.

"Hmm, you better be glad about not getting a nickname from me, Your Majesty, I have a lot of imagination, ya know. That Prince of the Capital thing gives a great room for so much teasing"

As expected, she only got a flat look of annoyance in return, which caused her to giggle at Narumiya's sour face.

When they had finished their lunch, the blonde ace led Sora out of the mall and to the bus stop, claiming that he had one last surprise for her for their date and the young girl followed him, restraining her cynical comments. She actually had to admit that his efforts were kind of cute and nice and she also could tell that he meant well and didn't just want to show off.

Arriving at their next destination, Narumiya took the blue head up a small hill where a big building with a dome dominated the landscape. Not many people were around in the area and Sora wondered what could be going on.

Gentlemanly as he was acting like, the blonde opened the doors for her and accompanied her through a big foyer and an empty hallway into a huge cinema-like hall dimmed in cozy twilight.

"A planetarium?" Sora asked because she had heard of it, but had never seen one before herself.

Narumiya nodded, placing the hand that wasn't holding their shopping bag in one of his pockets.

"My dad knows the owner and I asked him personally to let me use it today. It is their usual closing day, so there wouldn't be any visitors anyway and it doesn't cause any unnecessary trouble"

"Wow, Mei! You really put a lot of thought into that, didn't you? I'm actually very impressed. 'Sides, I've never been in a planetarium before", the blue haired girl praised, lifting her gaze to the vast astrodome ceiling.

The southpaw ace felt his cheeks heating up significantly. It was the first time that Sora had complimented him genuinely and his heart suddenly jumped before it began pounding much faster. He averted his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Well, yeah. I wanted it to be a special date after all. Before you friend zoned me..."

"Oi, oi..." the blue haired girl deadpanned. "You wanted to take a girl you've never seen before on a special date? Talk about a big risk... And I didn't friend zone you, I told you I want to get to know you better!"

"What did you expect? You're a girl that has the ability to play baseball in a male powerhouse team like Seidou. That alone makes you special. Then you're able to disguise yourself as a boy on a daily basis, which is definitely also worth mentioning, because I doubt many girls would be able to live their everyday life as a guy. Plus, your family was full of praise for you. Of course, anyone with a bit of love and knowledge for baseball would be at least interested in meeting you, let alone dating you", Narumiya explained matter-of-factly. "You said it yourself. Baseball players who aim to go pro don't have much time or a private life and mostly aren't able to get themselves a girlfriend in High School. But you're a baseball player as well despite being female. That's not only unique, but it's also a chance to establish a mutual relationship for once. Granted, you would be understanding and patient enough. Not to mention, you are beautiful and you have quite the character for a girl. Being such a tease and all..."