Chapter Text
It was an absolutely smoldering summer day. Nearly 98 degrees in Denver, a whopping high for the city’s occupants. Most sane people stayed inside, but those who were a little bit more risky, they decided to have some fun.
If you were excited enough, you soon forgot about the heat anyway! And there was plenty of excitement today. It was 1978, and all anyone could focus on was the fact that Jiro Yamada was pitching, and the best player in school, Dice Arisugawa- nicknamed ‘Dead or Alive’ from his notoriety as a batter- was up to bat.
“Come on Jiro! You can do it!” His brother, Ichiro cheered for him, Jiro’s other brother, Saburo, soon followed suit. “Yeah! Beat their asses!”
Jiro grinned as he watched Ichiro admonish Saburo’s use of language, then shook his head. ’Focus, Jiro!’
He had a game to win.
Giving Dice a sharp glace, Jiro wound his arm back. Aaaaaannnnddd…
“STRIKE!” The Umpire called. Dice looked startled at this predicament, ‘You weren’t expecting to get your ass beat, hah!’ Jiro smirked with confidence.
“Let’s go Jiro!”
“Two more, two more!”
The crowd was cheering for him, and Jiro loved every bit of it.
He brought his arm back once more aaaaannnnndd…
“STRIKE TWO!”
Jiro let out a giddy laugh. ‘Hell yeah!’ If he became the MVP of this game, Rei- his father, he should say- promised he’d take them out for some curry. And he had to get curry tonight. He did not want to have freaking ramen again for dinner. They had it pretty much every night since Mom…
Since Mom…
Jiro shook his head. He wanted that curry! He wanted a nice dinner with his family! It’s been so long since they got one without Saburo talking about the Grabber (for the millionth time), or Rei having to leave for his job (for the millionth time), Jiro snapping at his dad (for the millionth time) and Ichiro having to get everyone to stop fighting (for the millionth time). He wanted just one night where the didn’t have to deal with that.
One night with no fucking ramen.
And that night was basically his! Even if Dice’s swing came really close to the ball this time around… Jiro was sure he could do it!
“More power Jiro, more power!”
“Eye on the ball Dice!”
Jiro gritted his teeth together. He brought his arms up, then lowered them. A psych-out.
Dice narrowed his eyes, but after a brief moment, he let out a laugh. He raised his arms and stood, ready in position, refusing to be psyched out.
It was now or never. Jiro wound his arm back once more, aaaaannnnddd…
CLANK
The sound of a metal bat hitting against the ball rang throughout the field, accompanied by both the cheers of Dice’s team, and the disappointed cries of Jiro’s.
“HOME RUN!” The umpire called, as if it weren’t obvious. A useless occupation, really. Their yell only added salt to the cut of defeat, which stung even more as Dice happily ran a lap around all four bases.
As he did, his team screamed his name.
“Dice! Dice! Dice! Dead or Alive! Woooo!!!”
Jiro glared into the ground, staying put even as the rest of his team began to leave, alone with his thoughts.
‘Dammit… I couldn’t even throw one fucking ball right…’ His eyes grew watery, much to his disappointment. He wiped them hurriedly. He couldn’t let his brothers see him like this! Crying over a game like a baby when he was almost 16 years old! It was pathetic! But still.. He really wanted that curry… and now it was all-
Just then, a ball rolled over to his foot, hitting it and slightly startling Jiro.
He crouched down to pick it up, and noticed something on the back of it.
On the baseball, written in sharpie was ‘Love the life you live. Live the life you love’
Looking up in the direction of where the ball had come from, Jiro came face-to-face with the very guy who had ruined his chances of getting curry tonight.
Dice grinned. “Wassup.”
Jiro glared at him. “What do you want?” He tossed the ball in Dice’s direction. The elder teen stumbled to catch it -he had always been a better batter than a fielder, after all- as Jiro wiped his eyes once more, attempting to hide how red they had become.
“Chill man, I’m just wantin’ to check up on the guy who gave me the greatest game ever.” Dice tossed the ball back over, Jiro catching it with ease.
“Greatest game ever?” Jiro switched the ball between his left and right hand before throwing it again.
“Hell yeah! That arm of yours, man!” Dice missed the ball and had to run a bit to grab it. “That game was a total gamble!” He tossed it back.
“I don’t think you know what a gamble is?”
“Nah, trust me, it was exciting! All exciting things have a gambling aspect, you feel me?”
“Heh, sure.” What Dice said didn’t make a lot of sense, but Jiro found himself feeling better at his senior’s words. He fiddled with the ball in his hands a bit, glancing back at the writing on it. “Um, what does this mean, anyway?” He held up the ball so Dice could see the writing.
“Live the life you love, love the life you live, man.” Dice grinned. “I read that in one of my mom’s books once, and then I read it in one of the books my boyfriend was reading! Crazy right?” The elder teen nodded his head. “I made it my life’s motto cuz that was fate.”
“Sure, but what does it mean?” Jiro could see his brothers standing by the stands with someone else, waiting for him and Dice.
“It means; vibe with life, duh!” Dice laughed and started walking towards the stands.
“Yeah but…” Jiro raised an eyebrow and followed after Dice. “Why’d you write it and roll it over to me?” He pocketed the baseball in his jacket (who knows, maybe Dice would become a famous batter one day and he could keep it as a memento!)
Dice paused. “You looked upset, and I thought it would make you feel better.” He continued, as if nothing had happened. They had met up with the respective people waiting for both of them. Dice slung an arm around a green-eyed brunette and Jiro was greeted by a friendly hair-tussle from Ichiro.
“Good job, Jiro!” Ichiro smiled, and Jiro felt like all his troubles melted away.
“Ugh! Jiro! What took you so long!” Nevermind, he still had trouble, namely, Saburo.
“Eh? Come on, brat, be nice!”
“I won’t ‘be nice’, do I have to remind you that the Grabber is still out there!” The youngest brother clenched his fist. “If you want to stay out here and get kidnapped, fine by me!”
“Say that again, you fucking- ack!”
Jiro was interrupted by a light wack on his head, which he would have protested if Saburo hadn’t received the same treatment.
“Jiro! Saburo! That’s enough!” Ichiro shook his head. “Saburo, you should learn to respect your brother.” Saburo pouted and looked at the ground. “And Jiro, don’t you ever talk to your brother like that!” Jiro scoffed and looked away.
The eldest sighed. “That said, we should get out of here.” He smiled at Jiro. “We can get curry on our way back, how about that?”
Jiro’s eyes shone for a moment, then dimmed. “But we didn’t win…”
Ichiro raised an eyebrow. “And?” He wrapped an arm around both of his brothers’ shoulders and began walking away. He turned to face Dice and the brunette.
“Bye Dice, bye Gentaro, see you in class. Or at the next game, haha!
Dice and the brunette- Gentaro- waved back as the brothers moved away.
Jiro looked back at Dice one last time. “Thank you, Dice!” His eyes followed the boy’s receding form. He felt so much lighter after their talk and now that he was with his brothers, he really felt like he was… what was it? Living the life he loved, and loving the life he lived.
“Thank you! For everything!”
Dice didn’t even turn back, arm slung around Gentaro. He simply raised an arm in the air and did a peace sign. “Next game, give me the gamble of a lifetime, huh?”
Jiro smiled, then nodded, feeling the signed baseball in his pocket. And with that, the Yamada brothers left the field.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Okay, bye Gen!” Dice gave his boyfriend one last kiss before exiting through his front door. Man, what a great boyfriend he was!
Here he was, making sure Gentaro got home safe (something he did even before the Grabber appeared, mind you! And something he’d continue to do until they were old and married!), even if it was still bright outside, and the chances of anything happening to either of them were slim to none.
He couldn’t risk it!
Just as Dice turned to leave Gentaro’s porch, the door swung open once more, Gentaro flinging himself into Dice’s arms.
“W-Woah! Gen?”
Gentaro buried himself into the boy’s chest. “Are you sure you have to go so soon?” He wrapped his arms warmly around Dice. “I’m sure we can find something to do until my brother can give you a ride home…” His arms rose so that they wrapped around Dice’s neck.
“Gen… trust me when I say that I really, really, and I mean this, really want to stay, but I promised my mom I’d get home at 3, and she’d whoop my ass if I didn’t get home by then.”
“But Diiiiice…” Gentaro’s voice trailed off as he placed a hand on Dice’s cheek.
“Geeeeennnnn…” Dice kissed Gentaro’s hand. “I really have to go though.” As he started to pull him away, Dice felt slimmer arms pull him back.
“Don’t leave, Dice.” Gentaro’s eyes lost their typically merry mischievousness. “Please, it’s not safe to be walking around alone right now.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “The Grabber is still out there… and all of his victims have been boys our age. Dice, I don’t want…” Gentaro was stopped by Dice caressing his cheek, softly.
“It’s okay, Gen. My house is only a couple of blocks away, and I’m really tough, and a great runner! Nobody’s going to get me, I promise.”
Gentaro frowned. The other victims had been really tough as well. The other victims had been great runners as well. The other victims had been sure that nobody was going to get them as well.
But Dice was loyal, it was something Gentaro loved about him. If he made a promise to be home at a certain time, then he would rather die than arrive home a second later than he promised.
“Call me as soon as you get home.” Gentaro loosened the arms around Dice.
“Course.”
“Don’t forget.”
“Never.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t forget~.”
“What do you-mmph!” Dice was cut off as Gentaro pressed his lips against his own. After a brief moment of startling, he kissed his boyfriend back. He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but by the time he stepped away from Gentaro- gasping for air- his wristwatch stated that it was 2:52.
“Shit!” Dice gave Gentaro one chaste kiss on the cheek. “Okay, bye for reals, now!” He started to sprint away.
Gentaro clutched the cheek that Dice had kissed, calling after him. “Call me!”
“Got it!”
“I love you, Dice!”
Dice grinned, waving as he sprinted away. “I love you too, Gentaro!”
Smiling, he ran even faster to his home, fueled by the fact that he knew Gentaro was watching him run off, fueled by his earlier win, fueled by the phone call he would make, and how happy Gentaro would be to hear his voice, even if they had only been separated for a few minutes.
Blinded by this fuel, Dice didn’t notice a man carrying things out of his black van until he ran into him, knocking himself and the man to the ground. Luckily, he was out of reach from Gentaro’s line of sight, otherwise he would have been even more embarrassed.
“I’m so sorry!” He cried, turning around to grab the items the man had dropped. The man had some balloons that had been tied to his boxes that had since come loose, five of them floating away into the air.
The man let out a pleasant laugh. “It is quite alright, I don’t think anything is broken~!” He smiled, or at least, his eyes smiled. The man wore a mask that obscured his mouth.
“You must be very strong, young man!”
“Haha… thanks.” Dice trailed off. He really had to get going, but it would just be a shitty thing to run off now after practically trampling the poor guy!
The man continued to speak. “Ah, nothing is broken… but those balloons…” The man stood up from the ground. Dice followed his gaze to where they had floated all the way to an electrical pole.
“I don’t think I can get those back…” The man stepped closer to where they floated off, closer to where Dice was standing.
“I’m sorry, I can get you new balloons if you need them. I mean, I don’t really have any money on me but uh…” Shit, now Dice just felt bad. And he was definitely not going to make it home before 3.
“It’s quite alright.” The man smiled with the upper half of his face once more. “After all…” He placed his hand on Dice’s shoulder.
“I don’t need them any more.”
Three out of the five balloons popped, sending a loud shriek throughout the neighborhood.