Work Text:
This was not your ideal date idea. In fact, it actually wasn’t your idea at all. Shockingly, it was Leon’s, despite his outright hatred for his Ultimate. Maybe it was cause you taught him a couple chords on the guitar last night, maybe he just missed baseball a little more than usual.
Either way, here you both were. A small baseball field near your apartment complex on a hot ass day. Way too hot. And somehow Leon was still in that damn leather jacket. Made you kind of wonder if baseball players were just immune to heat or something. Took you a minute (and Leon yelling at you) for you to realize you were just kinda staring at him.
“Yo. You gonna let me teach you how to swing or you just gonna sit there ‘n stare, babe?” Leon finally says something after a solid 30 seconds of you staring at him like you were trying to will his damn jacket off.
“Yeah, yeah, calm down I’m comin’.” You laughed softly, getting up and walking over to meet him at first base. To your confusion, he handed you the bat and stepped away. “I thought you were gonna teach me how to swing?”
“Well, c’mon, I gotta know what I’m workin’ with first,” he crossed his arms over his chest.
You cocked your head at him with an eyebrow raised. “Seriously?! Leon, I haven’t even held a bat since like, middle school gym class!”
“C’mon,” he nodded at you, shifting his weight. “Lemme see what’cha got. Can’t be that bad.”
You sighed, reluctantly swinging the bat. Yeah, okay, you weren’t rivaling Leon with that swing, but you didn’t think it was that bad.
Leon on the other hand had to bite back a small giggle. He held the back of his hand over his mouth, trying to hide his half smile. “Babe,” he couldn’t help but let out a small laugh before walking over to you.
“Oh, come on! It wasn’t that bad. Plus, this is your ultimate, not mine!” You protested, but Leon just laughed again.
“It wasn’t… like, horrible,” he offered, trying not to laugh again. He came up behind you, placing his hands over yours. “Jesus, babe, you’ve got this all messed up.”
He shifted your hands, placing your dominant one up on the handle, pushing your non-dominant hand under it. “You gotta have your dominant hand above your other hand… And your footing is wrong—” he explained, wedging a foot between yours, carefully pushing one of your feet out a bit. “—You have to keep your stance wide, it gives you better balance when you swing.”
You sighed, loosening your grip on the bat slightly, which didn’t go unnoticed to him.
“Babe,” Leon said softly as tightened his hands around yours. “Look, you really didn’t do that bad, alright? I was just giving you shit.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know—”
“Alright, c’mon. Lemme show you how to swing right.” He said, pulling away from you. He slipped his jacket off, leaving him in a light orange tank top. He tossed it on the bench behind both of you before carefully taking the bat from you.
He stood back at the first base plate, getting into the stance he just put you in moments before—legs wide, hands stacked on the handle of the bat.
“So,” he started, pulling the bat up behind his head. He turned his head quickly to make sure you were still listening before continuing. “You wanna bring the bat all the way up, y’know, eyes on the ball and all that shit,” he said quickly before continuing.
“Then you’re gonna step forward slightly, then when that ball comes towards you you’re basically gonna swivel your hip and knee forward.” After that, he swung, following the steps he’d just laid out for you. The air made an audible hiss from how fast he swung it.
“Annnd, follow through with it. Don’t stop when you hit the ball, swing all the way down.” He turned around, looking over to you. “Got that?”
You stared at him. “Nope.”
He laughed, handing the bat back to you. “C’mon, let’s give it a shot.”
You got back into the stance Leon showed you, and he came up behind you, hands over yours again. “Alright,” he started, his chest pressing up against your back. He leaned his head over your should to look at you. “Ready?”
You nodded, rolling your shoulders once, which made Leon snort.
“Okay, come up—” he began, pulling the bat up behind your head, guiding your hands. “Then, step forward a bit.” he pushed your foot slightly forward with his again.
“And when you swing, swivel your hip forward, ight?” You nodded again, letting him guide you into the swing. He pushed your leg forward carefully with his knee, guiding you into the swing. It wasn’t anywhere near as fast or as confident as his, but there was improvement from the first one.
“Better?” You ask, pulling away from him to turn and look at him.
“Yeah, no shit,” Even though he said that, he was smiling. He stepped away a good few feet. “Give it another shot.”
So you did. You got into that wide stance and pulled the bat back, turning your head around to look at him.
“Yo, don’t look at me.” He said, arms crossed, leaning against the batting cage. “Go for it.”
You breathed out, stepping forward slightly, beginning to bring the bat down, swiveling your back leg forward, and following through over your shoulder. It felt awkward—both the swing and knowing Leon was over your shoulder, probably judging your every move.
But to your surprise when you turned around he nodded at you with a small smile playing on his lips. “Definitely better. By like, a long shot, babe.”
He dropped his arms, picking up a baseball next to his jacket from the bench. “Ready to hit for real?”
Hell no you weren’t. But hey, you only live once or whatever right?
“Ah, screw it, why not?” You finally spoke up after a moment, resting the bat on your shoulder.
He laughed softly, flicking you on the arm. “Okay, calm down, Harley Quinn.”
He walked out to the middle of the field, stretching his arms. “Ready?”
“Nope.” You yelled out to him, getting in position to hit.
“Perfect!” He laughed, tossing the ball up in the air and catching it again a couple of times.
Then he finally threw it—so fast you didn’t even have enough time to react when it zipped past your face. It hit the back of the batting cage, loudly crashing against the chain linked fence behind you.
You just blinked for a minute, processing what the hell even just happened. Leon had that smirk on his face, the one he always had when he teased you. There was a hint of admiration behind it though. He stared at you for just a minute too long before he finally said something.
“Yo, toss that back. Lemme throw for real this time,” he yelled over to you, laughing.
You chuckled under your breath, picking up the ball and tossing it back to him. “You’re a dick, you know that?”
“Yeah, I know. It’s cause you love it.”
“I do not, actually.”
“Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that, babe.” He playfully rolled his eyes, throwing the ball again. This time at a much more hittable speed. Well, for anyone who’s played baseball before anyways. You still missed. By a long shot.
Leon couldn’t help but chuckle. You sucked, but he’d be lying if it wasn’t kinda cute. He was a sucker for you. He still had that damn smile on his face—part teasing, part admiration. “Try again?” He asked.
You sighed, before nodding. You tossed the ball back to him. Missing again. And again. And then, finally, you hit it.
and damn, was it a good hit. Shit, Leon was even impressed. For some who’d practically never played baseball in their life, you hit that thing pretty damn far. He just barely caught it, stopping after he did.
“Damn!” He eventually made his way back over to you, taking a seat on the bench. “That was not bad at all, babe.”
You sat down next to him, knee brushing up against his. You were breathing pretty heavy. Leon ran a hand through his hair, before looking over to you.
“Damn, wore you out, huh?”
“Man, I’ll show you worn out.”
He laughed, shoving your knee with his. “Yeah, you’d like to, wouldn’t ya?”
He wrapped an arm around your shoulder, tugging you a little closer. He pressed a quick kiss to your cheek before pulling away slightly.
“Love you,” you said.
“Yeah, love you too, babe,” he replied quietly. “Damn, it’s hot out.”
You laughed at that. “Way to ruin the moment, Leon.”
“Yo, c’mon, you know you love me!” He poked your arm teasingly, laughing with you.