Ericson's Oneshots collection

Baseball lessons

Plot: Louis helps teach AJ baseball, and Clem watches them bond like father and son. Clem and Louis will have been a couple for 3 years now, so AJ is about 8 years old and Louis and Clem are in their late teens. I guess this qualifies as a Clouis Oneshot because Louis and Clem are a couple in this, raising AJ like their own son. 

Word count:1069

"It's  gotta be in here somewhere!" Louis exclaimed, as he searched through the mess of the school gym.

"Come on Louis." AJ rolled his eyes, already taking his gun out and rolling the clip around in his hand, his habit when he was bored. "We've been here forever, and I want to go on patrol."

"I know little man, just one more mi- THERE IT IS!" He picked up a long,dusty, black bag that was covered in debris. The bag had a big white swoosh on it, the brand symbol for Nike.

"What's in there?" AJ asked eying the bag suspiciously. "You're gonna have to take a day off from patrol duty if you want to find out." Louis said with his trademark goofy grin plastered across his face. "There'll be plenty of danger for you to patrol for later."

"Okay fine." AJ said with a chuckle. "Hopefully it is something good."

"Oh it is little dude, oh it is."

-

"Ok buddy, prepare to see something awesome."

Louis had taken AJ to the northeast corner of the school campus, a vast open field area that had served as a sports complex for Ericsson's, of course, like everything else, it had fallen into disrepair and had become overgrown, so much so that AJ had no idea he was standing in a baseball diamond, or at least, not yet.

"This is what we will be working with for today. This is called a Bat, and this is a glove."

All AJ saw was Louis holding what looked be a cool walker killing weapon, and a hand shaped black object in the other. "Okay, whats the big idea?"

"Do you know anything about baseball?"

AJ's eyes lit up at the word baseball.

"Not really, but Clem said she met a guy who played it one time. That's all I know about it."

"Well today's your lucky day buddy, because I'm gonna teach you!"

"Heck yeah!" AJ jumped up and down with excitement. "I'm gonna be a baseball player."

-

A couple hours later.

After playing pitch and catch with AJ using the baseball gloves and baseball, which AJ picked up on pretty quick, Louis started to teach AJ how to bat, with less positive results."

"Shitfuck!" AJ cursed, slamming the bat down for like the 100th time after missing another one of Louis's pitches. "I can't do it. Every time I think I'm gonna hit it I miss."

Before Louis could answer him, a voice interrupted them. A voice he knew all too well, a voice he loved.

"I heard you boys were up to something." Clem said, as she walked towards the field. "Willy said y'all were out here, he could see y'all from his perch in the bell tower."

"He's trying to teach me baseball." AJ said, looking at the ground with a frown, "but I'm not good at it."

"Don't beat yourself up kiddo." Clem said, kneeling down so she was at AJ's level. "Learning something new takes practice. Remember when I taught you how to shoot?" "Yeah, a little" AJ said. "What does that have to do with this?" "Well you couldn't hit anything when you first started" Clem explained. "But after dedicating plenty for practice to it, you became a better shot with that thing than I ever was, baseball is no different, with some practice, you'll be hitting like Babe Ruth before you know it!"

"I can do it!" AJ said, his frown morphing into a look of determination. "I know I can."

"That's the spirt AJ!" Clem exclaimed beaming at him and taking a seat in the rusty bleachers.

"It's the bottom of the 9th inning, 2 outs, runners on 2nd and 3rd base. The Shitbirds are losing by 1 run. And the slugger Alvin Jr. is coming to the plate." Louis boomed in his best sportscaster voice. Getting a laugh from Clementine. One of the genuine laughs that made him feel so warm on the inside. "Will AJ save the day and beat the mighty St. Louis Clementine's? Or will he suffer agonizing defeat?"

"Ok AJ, you know how this works. If you miss 3 more pitches, the game is over, but if you get a hit you win, you can do this buddy!"

"Go AJ!!" Clem cheered from the stands.

The first pitch was slightly too far away for AJ to hit, but he swung anyway and missed. As he didn't understand how the strike zone works yet.

2 pitches left.

The next pitch AJ finally made contact with, but it was just a slight foul tip, not solid contact. But just the feeling of making contact was exhilarating for AJ. He knew he would hit the next one. He could feel it.

"2 strikes down, 1 left." Louis exclaimed. "One more chance for our hero AJ to save the day!" Louis began to wind up to pitch.

Everything slowed to a crawl as AJ. Focused in, concentrating on the ball and the bat in his hands and nothing else. Even Clem's cheering seemed 100 miles away. As the ball came soaring towards him, he swung.......

CRACK!

The sound of the bat connecting with the ball sent a shiver down AJs spine. He had closed his eyes in the second that he made contact with the ball, but based on the sound he knew he had hit it perfect. He watched as the ball soared over 50 yards in the air past Louis's head!"

"Base hit! Base hit!" Louis screamed. "Both runners are being sent home! The first run scores! Here comes the other.....the throw to the plate is.....not in time! The runner is safe! Shitbirds win! AJ is a hero!"

He and Clem both got to AJ at the same time and lifted him up to sit on their shoulders. They paraded him around shouting "AJ! AJ!" For a good 5 minutes before finally putting him down.

"You did it buddy!" Louis exclaimed after AJ had been put down. "You beat me, now I'm gonna go cry from losing."

"Oh hush" Clem said with a grin, kissing the top of AJ's bushy Afro before kissing Louis on the lips. You're both winners in my book."

Author note: Not bad for my first oneshot right? I'm still new to writing, and this will be a backup project when I start up on my main book triology the Ericsson's Chronicles, but I hope y'all enjoyed this first one, hopefully I'll be able to do another oneshot soon!