Chapter Text
Everything was tired and sore. What should have felt like a good workout just felt like being run over by a truck, as Cudi tossed the bat aside with the others. He picked up his phone again, swiping away the series of messages from Kori, and looked at the time. Late, but not that late. Probably time to get home, but...
Home was a lot of memories he didn't want to deal with right now.
Come morning, he'd be fine - like usual - but for now he wanted to sit with the feelings. Losing Gallup had been hard. Even though he hadn't known her well, the time they'd had...had been powerful. He'd never have been able to tell off Kori like that without her nudge, even as drunk as he'd been last night. Losing Mandy...that was a spike to the heart. Mandy was Lift. Mandy was a friend.
Dammit. He could feel the tears burning at his eyes again. He didn't want to cry.
At least he'd been able to speak to Mandy, before it was all said and done. And he'd messaged Gallup.
Walking the streets, it seemed so quiet - a contrast from the chaos in his head. Things had been wild before the Lift had come to play with the rest of the ILB, sure. But he didn't remember it being like this. Feeling like this. Had the teams not been as close? He couldn't remember. It seemed like an eternity ago.
He found a park, one he'd first visited when he moved here, and sat down on a bench. Cudi couldn't imagine how Sam had to be feeling. He knew Sam and Gallup had been close, if not more. It didn't bear thinking of. It had been a while since Cudi had been that close to someone, but still...
"Hey." A voice from behind him made him jump, turning to look. Just out of the shadows was his teammate - and if he'd thought about it, he shouldn't have been surprised.
"Val?"
The pitcher stepped forward and came around to stand more in front of Cudi. "You okay?"
"I...yeah? Why?"
"Because it's an hour to game time tomorrow and you're nowhere to be found." Val crossed his arms. "So I'll try again. You okay?"
Cudi sighed. "Elections are just stressful, man. And now we're down Mandy. I know that's the game, but..."
The pitcher nodded. "Yeah, I get it. Next season's gonna be rough. But that don't mean we give up."
"I don't want to give up. I wanna play, an' fight, an' get our teammate back." Cudi's eyes went down to his hands. "I just...was it always like this? Before?"
Cudi heard Val sigh, and a moment later the time traveler sat down on the bench next to his teammate. "Honestly? Don't really remember. Ain't never been easy though."
"It's gonna be weird, yo. Without Mandy."
"It'll be weird all the way around, dude. It's blaseball." When Cudi didn't answer, Val nudged his shoulder. "That's a joke, man."
"I know." Cudi was still staring at his hands.
"Cudi." Val didn't continue until the hitter looked over at him. "Can I take you home?"
He looked back at his hands. "Yeah, I guess."
Val stood and offered Cudi his hand, which after a moment he took - and the pitcher tugged him to his feet, then wrapped an arm around Cudi's shoulders. "Let's go, man."
After a few steps, the hitter put his arm around Val's waist, but couldn't think of anything to say. He wanted to apologize for the other night again, but Val hadn't responded to Cudi's first text message so he didn't really know what else to say, other than treat it like nothing had happened. And honestly, nothing had, other than Cudi sputtering like an idiot and calling Val hot. Which wasn't a lie, so...
Once at the complex, Val nudged the door open and walked Cudi back into his living room. "You gonna be good?"
Val started to pull away, and Cudi's hand caught on Val's jacket, grabbing at the fabric. "I...can you just..." His voice trailed off, but then seemed to realize what it sounded like he was implying. "Not like to...I just mean..." The hitter sighed. "I'm just not ready for the place to be empty."
As always, Val seemed unruffled by Cudi's stammering. "I can hang for a bit. You just wanna chill?"
"Yeah." He stifled a yawn. "Ah, sorry."
Val smirked and sat down on one end of Cudi's couch. "No worries, dude. I get it. You can lay down if you want."
"I..." Cudi blinked at the pitcher. "You serious, man?"
The time thief shrugged. "Sure."
He hesitated for a moment, but Val just slapped his leg as invitation, so the hitter gave in and sat down, reclining back so that his head could rest on Val's leg. Glancing up at the pitcher, he saw Val's smirk soften into a small smile as he brushed Cudi's hair out of his face. "Thanks, man."
"Sure thing. Rest up; we got a hell of a game tomorrow."
And his eyes drifted closed, with the feeling of Val's fingers running through his hair, Cudi drifted to sleep.