Curveball [BL] COMPLETED

4

Every birthday since Juda's little sisters were born went the same. Starting at three years old, his mom and dad would each carry one of his twin sisters into his room and carefully set them on his sleeping body, and with enough pats and blanket pulling, they would rouse him from his sleep.

Happy birthday, his parents would cheer and clap, and the eight month old babies would copy them, blabbering and clapping because Mommy and Daddy were. It always brought a grin to his face, so wide that it hurt his cheeks.

And every year after, they continued to wake him up the same way. Eventually, Mom and Dad didn't need to carry them anymore. They walked all on their own, clapped because they knew why, and grew old enough to buy their older brother a present with their own money.

Some years he woke up before them, but he always still pretended for their sake. And that was probably his biggest shock moving towns and settling into college - his birthdays were no longer spent with his family. No more pretending to be surprised by the matching weights on top of him- only his alarm blaring at five am greeted him to the new morning.

His first year away from home was probably the hardest. He loved baseball more than anything, but his family always came first to him. They sacrificed a lot for him to play baseball, and he never forgets it. He can't repay the time he took from his parents and little sisters, but he thinks about all the money his parents spent on him, and it drives him every day to work harder and make it to the Majors.

And then, he's going to pay back every penny ten fold.

He used to apologize a lot back in high school when he fully grasped how much money his passion costed his parents. And every time he did, his mom would roll her eyes and assure him, I'm your mom, it's my job to stress over money, not yours. You go be a kid while you can and enjoy it.

He misses his family a lot. Can hardly ever make the seven hour trip home to see them besides Christmas break and the summer, and even then, it's cut short due to their training camps.

Juda's turning 21 today, a significant milestone in everyone's life, but there's not two little brats jumping on him to wake him up.

"Juda-!" His eyes fly open, immediately grunting from the heavy weight that jumped into his chest and knocked his breath away. "Happy birthday you bastard!"

Breathing properly know, Juda blearily blinks at Carmen and Nico who quite literally propelled themselves on top of him. "-What the f**k?" he mumbles incoherently. He looks around the room, trying to figure out what's going on, almost thinking he's still dreaming.

He's not dreaming, if the knee pressing into his d**k is anything to go by. "Tell the fans," Nico holds out his fist, "How's it feel being able to buy alcohol all on your own?"

Tiredly, Juda's head falls back against the pillows as he runs his hands down his face, unable to help the quiet chuckle he lets out. "You guys are idiots," he mumbles. "But pretty fuckin' good."

"You heard it here, folks~ Pretty fuckin' good!"

Peeling his hands away, Juda's hooded eyes focus on their matching grins, feeling his own lips pull up. "How hard was it to wake Carmen up before me?"

Nico groans. "I almost just did this myself. I even woke up twenty minutes early to give him time to get up." He side eyes Carmen, "He was cutting it real close."

Carmen rubs his neck sheepishly. "I eventually got up." His gaze settles on Juda. "Happy birthday, though, seriously. I wish you a good year and all that bullshit. How's the saying go?"

"Don't know, but thanks." Juda rubs his face again, trying to wake himself up. "Where's my present?"

They both laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"That you thought you were getting a present."

It's too early for their bullshit games, Juda thinks, rolling over. "Just let me sleep then." He holds off a yawn. "I'll take that as a present."

Carmen and Nico share a glance, nodding. "Fifteen minutes," Carmen finally says. "And I'll bring you breakfast in bed, even the good coffee."

Head buried in his arm, Juda spares him a glance. "Are you seducing me? It's kind of working."

Carmen laughs, patting at Juda's back. Go to sleep, he says, I'll be right back. He takes Nico with him and true to his word, he brings all of Juda's favorite foods back from the cafeteria.

The cherry on top? They let him sleep twenty minutes.

⚾️

It's a little past six when practice finishes. The sun's still high in the sky, but it's not blazing hot like earlier. Sweat prickles at Juda's neck and reminds him that he's in dire need of a shower. Clean first, shower later, he reminds himself.

His catchers gear is thrown off to the side, along with his bag and countless bottles of water. They're warm now, not the chilly cool they were three hours ago. He sighs as he picks up another round of baseballs, and mentally applauds their managers that they do this everyday.

There's four managers in total - Gia being the head, and after every practice, they clean the field and dust off the balls individually. Juda's back is already aching, bending down over and over to toss the balls in the cart. He makes a mental note to get the girls something for their hard efforts, not realizing how taxing it was until now.

They apologized that they couldn't tonight, vaguely mentioning they had something urgent to do together. Roman, their captain, waved them off and thanked them for the hard work they already did, and together, all four of them walked off to the cafeteria with similar waves.

Coincidentally, everyone else claimed they had something urgent to do, even Roman himself. Coincidentally my ass. Juda felt disbelief at first, thinking they were only joking, but as every one of them walked off the field and left him with all the clean up, he could only splutter and curse them under his breath.

It's his birthday dammit.

Jax is the only one to stay behind with him, save for Nico. Their pitcher isn't much help, though. He's sat on the bench, sulking as he ices his shoulder. Coach easily grabbed him by the collar, choking him when he saw Nico trying to sneak off with everyone else. Ice, was all he grunted, and Nico had no room to refute.

Nico avoids all eye contact with Juda, pretending to not even notice him. Asshole, Juda mentally grumbles, knowing he just didn't wanna help clean up.

"Jesus-" Jax groans, stretching out his back, "I don't know how the girls do this every day." Hips twisting, Juda barely suppresses a grimace hearing them crack. "I'm gonna eat a s**t ton of meat after this, what about you?"

With all the balls picked up, they wheel them over to the storage room, locking up right after. "Probably shower, I feel so gross." Juda pictures it now - the steaming water, coconut body wash he stole from Carmen, and his carefully crafted playlist consisting of Dave Matthews playing in the background.

Pushing past the locker room door, Juda quickly finds his locker and starts taking his jersey off. He leaves the undershirt on, knowing he's gonna shower right after anyways. "I might grab something small to eat on my way."

Jax pauses. "..Eat..? Shouldn't you do that after you shower?"

Juda's eyebrows raise, stuffing his bag in his locker. "Didn't you just say you were gonna eat?"

He pauses again. "Well- true, but it's not good to snack so late at night. Save your appetite for a big meal." Unnaturally, he reaches out and slaps Juda on the back. "You earned it, buddy."

Juda huffs in amusement, shutting his locker. He doesn't bother locking it. "Is there some reason I shouldn't go in the cafeteria?" It's almost too satisfying watching Jax stammer and wave his hand around ridiculously. Their entire teams excuse about how they were all busy was pretty unnatural too, but Juda didn't bother calling them out on it.

He would've believed their managers' excuse but the entire team too? C'mon.

It's a little endearing if he's honest, so he goes along with it. Every time there's a teammates birthday, all the other members prepare a 'surprise' birthday party in the cafeteria, right after afternoon practice. After forty birthday parties, it's never a surprise anymore- excepts for idiots like Bear and the new first years, but even so, everyone always acts surprised.

"Whaat? No, no. I'm just looking out for your health."

"Right," Juda drawls. "Asking for absolutely no reason, but how long should I stay away from the cafeteria?"

Jax nervously eyes the door before shifting his gaze to Juda. "You didn't hear it from me, but I'd say roughly two hours."

"Two goddamn hours for hanging some balloons?"

Jax hits him upside the head. "Be grateful, asshole." And Juda rubs the back of his neck, mumbling yeah, yeah. He'll wait the two hours but he's not happy about it. He wasn't lying when he said he wanted something small to eat, but he's sure if he searches their mini fridge enough he'll find something. "Y'know, the fourth years and I were talking the other day about next year."

Juda takes a seat on the bench, waiting as Jax finishes changing. "Already? The year's barely started."

"Not about graduating." He waves off. "It's still pretty early and we won't start seriously talking about it until the end of the year, but there's already talk going around about next years captain."

Juda's interest peaks. "Really? Who do you guys have in mind?"

Jax steals a glance at him over his shoulder. "We never know what's gonna happen, but honestly, everyone seemed pretty set on you."

Immediately, Juda laughs. Me? He laughs because it sounds ridiculous even to him, but much too late, he realizes Jax isn't laughing with him. "Oh- you're serious." He quickly sobers up. "What the f**k? Why me? There's plenty of other third years."

Jax gives him a flat look, deadpanning, "There's Carmen and Nico. No other third years are starters like you guys."

It's somewhat fair, but even so, "Why not pick one of them then?"

"Carmen and Nico are good individually- great, actually, but they're idiots." It's also pretty fair, so Juda doesn't correct him. "Look, man, I feel pretty gross even saying this, but a lot of the younger guys look up to you. You're good at the whole team work makes the dream work bullshit, and you're good at lifting their spirits, even mine." He looks disgusted with himself, admitting something he never meant to say aloud. "Roman recommended you too."

Juda brushes his hair back, lost in thought. He never even considered himself as a potential candidate, assuming the role would just fall on someone like Carmen. He could imagine Carmen being captain- for how much he jokes around in practice, he's deadly serious during their games and is constantly praising everyone for their efforts. Even when it's undeniably clear that they won't win a game, Carmen's immediately there to encourage everyone. We can still do it, he'll assure, we'll get the points back.

"I don't know." Juda's fingers drum against the bench. "Captain comes with a lot of responsibility."

Jax closes his locker, head jerking towards the door. "We've still got 8 months left, just think about." And Juda promises he will, following Jax out of the locker room. "Remember- two hours." Jax looks at him pointedly. "And act surprised, the first years seemed pretty excited to help."

"Yeah, yeah." Juda waves off, walking in the opposite direction. He sees Nico still icing his shoulder, looking like he could pass out from boredom any second. "You're still out here?" Taking a seat beside him in the dugout, Juda stretches out his legs.

His shower can wait.

Nico's head tilts. "Coach is watching me like a hawk. I tried leaving and he immediately gave me the eyes." The eyes, Juda almost shivers from the thought. "I'm almost done, though."

"Icing your shoulder is good, it prevents injuries," Juda reminds, throwing his arm around Nico's shoulder. The ice sleeve wets his arm but he pays it no mind. "If you go and get yourself hurt, what're we gonna do?"

Nico's head falls onto his shoulder, exhausted. "You've still got Rio." And Juda hums - knows that Rio is a great pitcher. He closes most of their games, always coming in blazing hot after Nico's pulled from the game.

"Yeah, but he's no you."

Nico's lips twitch up. A bead of water trails down his arm and drips from his fingertip, staining the ground a dark gray. It lightens within seconds. "I won't get injured," he promises quietly. "That means letting another pitcher have all your attention, and I can't have that."

As always, Juda thinks, lips quirking, pitchers are greedy bastards.

Shoulder stiff and frozen, Nico eventually stands and starts unstrapping the ice sleeve. He rolls his shoulders back and picks his shirt off the ground, not bothering to put it back on. "I've got some super secret business to attend to but happy birthday, asshole."

Juda watches him pack up his things. "Where's my present, huh?"

"You can kiss my ass, how's that for a present?" He glances at Juda over his shoulder, closing his fingers in a zero. "I'm broke."

"I know how much you make in a year." Juda says, and Nico only snickers to himself. "If you suddenly lost all your money I guess I've got no choice but to take your ass."

Nico laughs, hoisting his duffel bag over his shoulder. "You're the birthday boy." He sends an obnoxious air kiss towards Juda and throws a wave over his shoulder as he exits the dugout. "Later~."

Juda watches him go with a tired, amused huff.

Shower time.

⚾️

Two hours to the dot, Carmen comes knocking on their room door. "Birthday boy~" He sings songs, pushing the door open. "Dinner's ready." He holds his arms open in a grand gesture, saying after you.

Juda glances up from his bed, sat up as he talks on the phone. He nods to Carmen, silently telling him he'll be right there as he wraps up his call, and Carmen's lips form an 'o', expression, apologetic for interrupting. "-Carmen's here too, Mom." Juda nods for him to come closer, and almost hesitantly, Carmen does. "She wants to talk to you."

Setting it on speaker, Juda's phone sits between them, stacked onto a mountain of pillows. "Mrs. R~ How're you doing?"

Juda's mom greets him just as warmly. "I'm good, sweetie, I just miss my little Juda~" Juda can't suppress his nose scrunch, and Carmen huffs in amusement. "I almost flew down there to see him but he insisted I didn't."

"I just saw you last month," Juda complains.

"That's an entire month, even your sisters already miss you." Her voice is nothing but nagging, chastising Juda and it makes Carmen laugh. "How's Nico? Is he there too?"

"He's eating dinner," Carmen let's her know. "I can get him for you if you want, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Oh, no!" She immediately refuses. "Why didn't you tell me it was dinner time, Juda? Go eat, go eat. I probably kept you on the phone longer than I should've anyway." She goes on to rush out that she loves him, a plethora of happy birthdays, and promises that his gift will be there tomorrow- happening to run late by a day. She seems annoyed by this but Juda quickly assures her it's fine.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he promises. "Right when I open it." And he can picture the smile that lights her face when he does. With a you better, the call goes dead, leaving them alone. "I was on the phone with her for almost two hours y'know? How long does it take you guys to hang some balloons?"

"You're welcome." Carmen rolls his eyes, standing up. He holds his hand out for Juda, and feels his larger hand slide into his. "You don't talk to her enough."

"I do," he insists, but he knows he could do it more. "Sometimes we're just busy."

The crickets are loud tonight. As Carmen walks backwards and leads Juda with his arm extended out, they chirp along the trail, following them all the way to the cafeteria. "Dinner's your favorite~"

Juda perks. "Mashed potatoes?"

"That's such a weird food to be your favorite, but yes. All the managers spent the past couple hours making dinner."

Juda's reminded again to get the girls something nice.

"Okay~" Carmen stops by the double doors, voice raising obnoxiously loud. "We're here, Juda! At the cafeteria! Right in front of the door! Shall we go in?!" His eyes are boring into Juda, and it's all just so obvious, Juda can't help but laugh.

Playing along, "Yes, Carmen! Let's!" There's a crash from somewhere inside and Carmen cringes, pretends not to hear it. But Juda hears it loud and clear, can't stop the goofy grin crawling on his lips.

Idiots, he thinks fondly.

Slowly, Carmen pushes the door opens. "We're going, we're going, we're going. Oh look at that- why are the lights shut off?" It's pitch black inside, and Juda's unable to make anything out as Carmen steps in. "Oh, I know~ It must be 'cause-"

"Surprise!" The lights flick on and Juda's greeted with every single teammate jumping out of terrible hiding places. He even sees Ramon in the back, right behind Bear who hits his head trying to get out from under the table. "Happy birthday!"

Juda sucks in a breath, looking around at everything. It's.. he takes in all the decorations, definitely a lot more than just some poorly blown up balloons. "I had no idea," he pretends, stepping inside and dramatically looking around. "How did you guys plan all this while I had absolutely no clue?"

"'Cause we're f*****g awesome, that's why," Bear boasts.

For once, Juda agrees.

Jax comes over with a stack of party hats in hand and reaches out to put one on Juda. The elastic strap pinches his chin, but he's honestly too happy to give a f**k. "It's more than you expected, right?" Jax gives him a knowing look. "I told you to be grateful~"

And he's right. Juda expected a few balloons here and there, a store bought cake, and probably some alcohol they made everyone chip in to buy, and to be fair- it is, but the managers must've helped properly decorate everything. He can see them in the back, aprons on and ladles prepared, ready to dish all the boys out some food.

The balloons are floating, floating. Never in his two years on this team have they ever cared enough to fill the balloons with helium. There's streamers, balloons spelling out his name with a large 2 1 floating next to it, and dear god- is that a table made of alcohol bottles? 

"You look so surprised." Carmen laughs, wishing he had his phone to take a picture.

"They're floating." He's still amazed with the balloons, wants to touch one of them to make sure they're real.

Carmen nudges his side. "It's your 21st," he tells him quietly, something only he's meant to hear. "You should have a big birthday here since you can't at home." But if he were at home, Juda would've just sliced some cake and watched a movie with his family, nothing compared to this.

His gaze shifts down to Carmen. He doesn't know how to properly say thank you without feeling awkward, feels like he owes him a lot more than that. All he can come up with is, "Thank you," but he hopes it shows his sincerity.

And it must, because Carmen flushes and looks away. "Don't go getting all sappy and starry eyed." He punches Juda in the arm, a weak attempt to seem more casual. "It was everyone's idea, not just mine."

Juda shrugs a shoulder, "Still. Thanks, I mean it."

"You better remember this when it's my birthday."

"June, right?"

The nights an absolute blur- and not just from the alcohol. It definitely doesn't help, but Juda's- f**k- he's just in such a good mood.

Reese plays his music from the loud speakers, automatically proclaiming that his playlist is better than everyone else's, and it's actually pretty good- Juda even finds himself humming along to some of the songs. Cup after cup of alcohol is passed to him by so many guys he can't even keep track, and while he knows they probably shouldn't be drinking with practice so early in the morning, it's his 21st dammit. He's gonna drink.

Just because he could and the managers keep spurring him on with giggles, he ate three whole plates of mashed potatoes. Nico watched him the whole time he did, silently gesturing for Gia to add more to his plate to see if he would eat it.

Spoiler : he did.

Toasts are made after everyone's pretty tipsy. Bear starts, going on and on about how much he looks up to Juda and then somehow ending it with a string of curses, condemning him to Hell. And after that, it's basically an invitation for anyone and everyone to s**t on him, but Juda's a trooper about it, waves his hands in and welcomes all the insults.

He doesn't know what's more memorable - all their insults being relatively true or Reese actually admitting he thinks Juda's an okay guy.

When it's time to cut the cake, he's so s**t faced that Carmen hand feeds him a few bites. It's not so easily done though, not when Carmen's just as drunk as he is. "Fuck." Juda laughs, slumping in one of the many chairs. "Practice is gonna be hell tomorrow."

Carmen hums around a bite of cake. "This is so good." He looks around, yelling, "Who made this?!" And Nico shushes him, the only sober one out of the trio.

"Shh, Rio did." He exhales in amusement, looking unsure if he should be tired of their drunk behavior or amused. Because it's Juda's birthday, he decides amused.

Juda pats his cheeks and shakes his head back and forth, trying to sober up. "Don't let me drink anymore." Sighing softly, he slumps forward on the table and drops his head in his arms. "I already feel a headache coming on." Even so, he feels on top of the world.

Nico's lips part when Carmen offers him out a bite. He chews happily, licking his lips of any frosting. "How was it? Your big 2-1."

"Other than you bastards making me clean the field by myself, pretty fuckin' good." He gives a weak thumbs up. "One for the books."

Nico looks around, watching everyone still drinking their asses off. He leans in, lowering his voice as he says, "If we sneak out now, I'm pretty sure we can ditch cleaning."

Immediately, he's on his feet. "Let's go."

"Mm-!" Carmen's pulled up from his seat mid bite. He tries reaching out for his plate of cake but Juda's pulling him by his collar too quickly. He has no choice but to leave it.

Nico grabs it for him.

It's surprisingly easy walking past everyone with nobody noticing them leaving. They're already outside and among the crickets when Juda finally hears someone yelling about where they are. It's his birthday- God himself could not make him clean that mess up.

Inside their room, they all crash on Carmen's bed with similar sighs.

Juda let's the tiredness finally seep into his bones, no longer able to ignore how heavy his body feels with the distraction of partying. "-Oh!" Nico sits up, remembering something. "Your present, I almost forgot."

Carmen makes a similar noise of alarm. "Go get it, go get it~" he urges, almost positive he'd fall flat on his ass if he tried to get up. Nico doesn't even have to step off the bed for the gift, it's neatly tucked under Carmen's bed and is easily pulled out after he fishes for it.

"It's not much, but here." Nico holds it out to Juda. "It's from both of us."

Juda sits up and grabs the small bag. Tissue paper sticks out the top, and almost too carefully, he peels it back to peer inside. He sees the gloves first, and then a slip of paper. "You've been complaining about your gloves for a while," Carmen explains. "They're the right size, promise~"

Juda didn't doubt them, offering a smile. He was just about to buy a new pair himself, so he's more than grateful for them- he'll use them tomorrow morning in fact. "What's this?" He holds up the slip of paper.

September 21st - 8:30 pm.

"This," Carmen drawls, tapping the paper, "is your tattoo appointment with that artist you liked so much."

Juda's grip immediately tightens on the paper, creasing it. "No f*****g way- She's booked until October."

"Yes way," Nico insists. "Pulled a few strings here and there- maybe we mentioned how it was Juda Rolchner who wanted the tattoo and ta-dah," He shows his jazz hands, "A free spot suddenly opened."

Juda's speechless. He's been trying for months to get a session with her. If all he needed to do was mention his name, he would've done it the first time he was rejected. "Are we awesome or what?" Carmen grins. "C'mon, tell us how amazing we are."

"You guys- you're-" Juda can't find the right things to say, words mixing together as he smiles so wide it hurts, "Yeah- you guys are pretty amazing." Nico and Carmen high five, more than pleased with his reaction. "Will you come too? When I go get it."

"Can we?" Nico looks surprised. "I'm a little curious so yeah, if it's okay." And Carmen nods too, immediately on board.

Carefully, as if the paper held any value, Juda neatly tucks it back into the bag along with the gloves. He doesn't think he'll be able to throw it away - at least not until he gets the tattoo, and by then, he'll have something else to remember this moment. He doesn't say it aloud, but god- he loves these boys.

Nico and Carmen flop beside him, all silently agreeing that they were sleeping together. The bed isn't big enough to leave them comfortable, but Juda feels a calmness he hasn't felt in so long.

"What did you wish for?" Carmen asks.

Juda's head tilts towards him, finding him staring at the ceiling. There's a wad of paper stuck there - has been for the past two years. "Huh?"

"When you blew out your candles, what did you wish for?"

"Ah." He hums in understanding, and thinks about teasing that it won't come true, but he's too tired and knows neither of them believes in the universe like that. Honestly, he almost forgot to wish for anything at all, too high off the adrenaline of everyone cheering him to blow them out. But at the last second, they popped into his head, "I wished for you two to make it to the Majors."

Nico's gaze quickly shifts to him. "You better have wished for you to, too."

Juda doesn't realize until now, but no- he didn't. The thought never even crossed his mind, actually, too swept up in his dreams off seeing Nico and Carmen successful. "I did." He lies. "We'll all make it."

"Do you think we actually can?" Carmen asks, voice surprisingly quiet. "I know we talk about it a lot, but how likely is it that all three of us actually will? Some guys don't even make it to the Minors."

It's silent for too long, only the sound of their mini fridge echoing in the room. "..I think we can," Nico mumbles.

"You really think so?"

"Call me optimistic, but yeah," Nico admits, somewhat sheepish. "We're awesome, remember?" Juda and Carmen huff in amusement. Yeah, they don't say. "And we're even more awesome together. That's why we all have to end up on the same team. What would the sports world think of that, huh? High school rivals, to college teammates, and finally making it to the pros together. We'd be legends."

Legends, huh, Juda's eyes shut, mind growing heavy with sleep.

"..Thanks for today," he murmurs. "..Love you fuckers."

Carmen turns on his side, hiding his small, tired smile. "Gross."