Disclaimer: I own neither Inuyasha nor Diamond no Ace and make no money from these writings.

Ace of Hearts

Chapter One: Youichi Kuramochi
Rating: T

"Knock it off!" Kuramochi snapped as Miyuki laughed at him. "Don't be an ass just because I have the finely tuned body of an athlete and you suck."

"We're both athletes," Miyuki pointed out as he watched his friend set the knob of his bat on the flat of his palm so that he could balance it upright as they walked back towards the fields after their lunch break. Miyuki wasn't sure if he would call it finely tuned because he could balance a bat, but he'd admit (to himself) that Kuramochi was pretty good at it. Which is exactly why he hip checked the shortstop for the fourth time.

Kuramochi shouted as his hand shot out to catch his bat, and he suppressed the urge to beat the snickering catcher with it. "You're such a shitty person," he grumbled as he finally settle for slinging the bat over his shoulder. "Why do I hang out with you, again?"

Miyuki simply shrugged like it was a mystery to him as well, but he was quick to nudge Kuramochi when something new caught his attention. "Who do you think that is?"

Looking farther down the path they were on, Kuramochi's eyes lit up. There was a girl. A pretty girl. "That's not Seido's uniform," he noticed as he looked over the blue plaid skirt and navy blazer.

"Well, it's Saturday," Miyuki said quietly as they drew closer to the girl. "She probably came straight here after her last afternoon class."

"Yeah, but why?" Kuramochi asked. For the second time, Miyuki just shrugged and Kuramochi rolled his eyes. It wasn't strange for people to come to the school to watch them practice, but it was usually alumni of the baseball club, not high school girls.

The closer they got to her, the more clearly they could hear her talking to herself. "Why did I even bother coming here? It's not like I know where he is. Though maybe I would if he would just answer my calls. Jerk."

"Excuse me, miss?" Miyuki called out smoothly, and Kuramochi had to physically bite his tongue to keep himself from groaning at the charm the taller boy was able to conjure up so easily. Stupid pretty boy. "Are you looking for someone?"

Kagome quickly looked up and blushed when she saw two baseball players approaching her. Had they heard her talking to herself? Trying to push aside her embarrassment for the moment, Kagome smiled as she laughed a little nervously. "Yeah, actually I am. I know he's on the baseball team but I have no idea where he might be."

"Who're you looking for?" Kuramochi asked, toning down his usually loud voice to something softer.

"Eijun Sawamura. Do you know him?"

Kuramochi's face fell almost immediately. A cute girl came to the fields and she was looking for Sawamura. What kind of unjust world did they live in? "Yeah, we know him," Kuramochi finally nodded before a new thought occurred to him. Wait a minute. Was Sawamura two-timing Wakana? His idiot roommate always said that she wasn't his girlfriend, but Kuramochi had seen the way the cute brunette had looked at the first year pitcher. Though his first reaction was anger on Wakana's behalf, it was swiftly followed by the slightly sadistic glee of having something new to torture his roommate with. Turning to look at Miyuki, he asked, "Was Sawamura still in the dining room when we left?"

"No, he left before we did," Miyuki shook his head. "He wanted to come out here and pitch some before afternoon practice. I had to watch and make sure he didn't choke since he was eating so fast." As he turned his attention back to the girl in front of them, Miyuki grinned. "He's probably pitching into a net since there's nobody out here to catch for him yet. We'll show you the way."

"Thanks," Kagome smiled up at the two boys before trailing after them as they flanked her on either side.

"So," Kuramochi drawled as his attention fell to the petite girl beside him. "What brought you looking for our little Eijun?"

Kagome's grip tightened on her school bag as her irritation instantly spiked. "He's not answering my calls or texts," she ground out. "So I figured that it would be harder for him to avoid me in person."

"I can't believe it," Miyuki shook his head with a 'tsk', though he sounded much more amused than he should have. "As his teammates, allow us to apologize for his behavior. And as his roommate, I'm sure Kuramochi will make sure he's punished appropriately."

Looking back to the boy on her other side, Kagome smiled, "Oh! Are you Eijun's roommate?"

"Youichi Kuramochi," the shortstop introduced himself with a wide grin. "I'll make sure Sawamura learns not to dodge calls, especially when they're from cute girls."

Kagome's cheeks heated up a little before she laughed. Glossing over the "cute" comment, she said, "Well, it's nice to meet your. I'm Kagome Higurashi, by the way."

It was then at the trio heard a loud voice shouting before there was the soft hiss of a net catching a baseball. Kuramochi and Miyuki watched in thinly veiled amusement as Kagome's smile fell into a glare before she trotted off in the direction of the noise.

Dropping her bag by the fence, Kagome put her hands on her hips as she watched the pitcher get ready for his next pitch. Just when he was winding up, she flatly called out, "Eijun."

Eijun tensed immediately but it was too late to stop the pitch. It pulled far to the side and caused the ball to ricochet off of the bar supporting the net and fly off to the side.

The second-year players watched on with no small amount of amusement as the normally energetic pitcher froze on the spot.

"Eijun," Kagome called out to him again as she gripped the chain link of the fence between them. "I'm not going anywhere until you talk to me."

"Practice hasn't actually started yet," Kuramochi said as he opened the nearby gate. "You can go in if you want."

"Thank you," Kagome smiled as she quickly grabbed up her bag and walked into the bullpen. Planting herself firmly in front of Eijun, she waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Eijun?"

"Whoa," Kuramochi breathed as he walked around to get a good look at what was going on. Eijun's normally tan skin looked drained of color and his wide gold eyes weren't budging from Kagome's. Kuramochi wasn't even sure that the younger boy was breathing. "I think you broke him."

"Snap out of it," Kagome told the pitcher with a smack to his chest.

Eijun coughed as he finally took in a breath before he wheezed, "Hi, Kagome."

"Don't you "Hi, Kagome" me!" Kagome frowned. "You've been in Tokyo for months. Why haven't you answered me?"

"I've been busy," Eijun borderline whined. "I practice all day, eat a few times a day, try not to fail my classes, and then go to bed."

Kagome looked skeptical as she asked, "You don't have a few seconds to reply to a text? Yes or no is all I would need."

Eijun actually snorted at that and almost rolled his eyes before he caught himself. "No it's not," he argued. "I don't know if I can give you a yes and mean it and you'd want a long explanation if it was a no."

Sighing, Kagome said, "Look, it's just one night. You can't come visit for one night? It's not even that far!"

Finally having enough of being out of the loop, Miyuki stepped in and asked, "What's Sawamura so against saying yes to?"

Kagome turned to look at the upperclassmen and her smile returned as she explained, "My family runs a shrine and we're having a festival in a couple of weeks. I've been trying to invite Eijun, but he won't give me an answer."

Kuramochi grinned and said, "A festival? I'm sure we can work it out so he can go, right Miyuki?"

Catching his friend's eye, Miyuki was on the same wavelength immediately as he nodded, "We'll bring him ourselves."

"Really?" Kagome asked, a little surprised. "That would be great! Here, let me write down the information for you since I'm sure Eijun won't tell you."

As Kagome rummaged through her bag for a notebook and a pen, Eijun looked at his teammates with a look of complete and utter betrayal. They, in return, didn't look the least bit apologetic for aiding in his obvious torment.

"Here you go," Kagome finally said as she ripped out a piece of paper and walked up to Kuramochi. "That's the date, time, and directions to the shrine from here." Pausing to clear her throat against a rising blush. "I also wrote down my number in case you have any questions. You should definitely come too! Both of you, I mean. The more the merrier and all that."

Blinking down at Kagome and then the paper, Kuramochi took it with a small nod and more than a little confusion. Watching Kagome walk up to Eijun again before she left, he frowned when she reached up to wipe a smudge of dirt off of Eijun's cheek and told him to be sure to clean up before coming to the festival.

As soon as she was gone, Kuramochi had his roommate in a headlock as he waved the paper with Kagome's number in front of his face. "This is what happens when you ignore your girl, Sawamura! She gives her number to other guys. Serves you right though! Two-timing Wakana like that."

"I'm not dating Waka-" Eijun started to shout only to stop part of the way through. "Two-timing?" He asked confused as he continued to pull and struggle against Kuramochi's grip. "What are you talking about?" Though as soon as the question left his mouth, the answer hit him and he went still for a few seconds before struggling harder. "Ew! No! No, no, no, no, no! I am not dating Kagome! You're so gross!"

"The hell are you talking about?" Kuramochi asked, keeping his grip firm but not enough to choke the underclassman out. The last thing he needed was to explain to Coach why Sawamura was passed out in the bullpen.

"Kagome's my cousin!" Eijun shouted. "And she's really pushy. Has been since we were kids! That's why I was avoiding her."

Kuramochi went quiet and his hold went lax enough for Eijun to slip away from him and gasp in a deep breath. To the side of them Miyuki laughed, "It almost sounds like you're scared of her."

"You'd be scared too if you grew up with her," Eijun mumbled. It was about then that Kuramochi ditched his bad and ran out of the bullpen and back towards the dorms. "Hey!" Eijun called after him from the open gate. "Where are you going?"

"To put this up so I don't lose it during practice!" Kuramochi crowed over his shoulder while he waved the paper he'd been given over his head.

"What's he so excited about?" Eijun asked as he went to gather the balls he'd already pitched into the net.

"Well," Miyuki grinned. "Kagome is your cousin, you're not dating her, and she just gave Kuramochi her number and invited him to a festival. Even you can do that math, right?" It took a second, but the horrified look that crossed the pitcher's face got Miyuki to laugh outright. "Yeah, have fun listening to him hit on your cousin after practice."