#noriforace2kforever

[rewatching]

[summer numbers. a year ago it seemed like an impossibility, a mirage he'd have no part of, their age still waiting in the wings as they followed the backs of their seniors, the other front-runners who walked before them like giants.

hisashi doesn't have a number in his hands, and at first that had hurt, a lot. he still feels brittle and hollow, all those months of toil bringing nothing but a scorebook in the dugout and no chance at bat, when he thinks about it, but it's never been just about him. the team means too much to him to be angry with his teammates, instead of himself.

and when nori is finally wearing the one hisashi knew he could take, that's their age standing on stage, their giant walking among them.

it's getting late in the evening when he finds nori, sun down and the team scattering to dorm rooms. it takes him five minutes of peeking around before he follows his instincts and passes through the cafeteria to the opposite exit. there. ] Nori. [ he moves carefully into his space, hands linked in front of himself casually. ] Don't stay up too late, ace. [ he smiles, and there's honesty in it. ]

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i am screaming and dying but in a happy way

[sidewind]

[it doesn't feel real.

it feels like a lot of things, sort of, but real is certainly not one of them, not by a long shot.

after what feels like a lifetime, a goddamn entire hundred-year human lifespan of working and scrapping together what little natural talent he possesses and molding it, day after day, hour after arm-numbing finger-bruising hour, into something not only usable but something formidable that nobody can deny any longer... he's here. he did it. he earned it.

most other things, at this moment, are completely escaping his notice. he's just... there, dumbfounded, still too shocked to really feel the joy and satisfaction he'd expected to be immediate. he's probably going to be like this for weeks and the rest of the guys in his year are going to have no mercy on him for that, but right now he doesn't care.

and then a voice, speaking to him: ace. that part comes more clearly than his name moments before. ace. god, holy shit, that's him.

he focuses-- and there's nabe, smiling at him, chiding him gently and maybe not entirely seriously; nori just kind of looks at him for a second, trying to get the brainwords -> mouthwords thing to work properly, and a small laugh wells up from somewhere in his chest. if it were more energetic, it might sound hysterical, but right now it just sounds like incredulity.]

I won't, don't worry... [he can't even think of anything smarter to say.]