September was a much better end for baseball, Lee thought. That meant it would be finishing as hockey was starting. Though, she realized, she wasn’t sure what she would feel like doing this winter about hockey because of Robert. Maybe Tarin had a team he would prefer to watch?


Lee knew that this was payback for making him leave his room that day to come out for the picnic, and she just continued staring at her son, shaking her head slightly, as Tarin thanked him.


Not that it was actually wrong for Kevin to tell, and he wasn’t going to be in trouble by any means, but it ruined Lee’s game of pretending she didn’t like baseball. Though Lee had been truthful, she hadn’t thought she would come to find baseball interesting and honestly thought that she could have fallen asleep while he was watching a game.


”It’s lovely to see where my son’s loyalties lie,” Lee said, still shaking her head as she turned to look at the guitar again. After all of that, she wasn’t going to take any requests, not that she had gotten any yet anyways, and her fingers started moving over the strings again. But what to play…

Tarin was still pleased with that little development about the fact that Lee had been watching games on her own. Probably even the right team at this point.

Lee commented about Kevin’s loyalties and Tarin gave her a look like it was the most obvious thing in the world, ”With baseball.” he said, as Lee went back to her guitar.

”Speaking of which…” Tarin said, snagging his backpack and pulling it over to unzip it and dig around inside.

”I thought we could maybe toss a ball around.” he said, pulling out the two rightie gloves. Tossing one towards the grass by Kevin and dropping the other by Lee, Tarin pulled out his own glove and his trusty Mets hat.

”It’s a perfect day for it.”

Lee just continued to shake her head as her fingers plucked out notes, trying to see if something would come to mind to play.


And apparently something did, just not to her mind.


Lee’s eyes shot up to Tarin in surprise when he set a baseball glove of all things down beside her. He had gloves. For all of them. So they could play catch?


”What?” Lee heard Kevin ask as he bent down to pick up the glove that Tarin had tossed in his direction. ”Is this mine?”


Did Kevin actually sound excited? Hearing that, Lee couldn’t stop the small smile from appearing on her face as she turned to set her guitar back in its case. ”You really didn’t have to do this, Tarin,” She said softly. As she turned back to him.

”Well it’s definitely not mine.” Tarin said to Kevin, pulling his glove onto his right hand, leaving his left free to throw.

Kevin actually put his phone away at this point and bent down to pick up the glove.

Lee was smiling, so he smiled back and when she spoke again, Tarin just shook his head.

”I know. I wanted to.” he said in response, climbing to his feet and digging a ball out of the bag and dropping it into his glove so he could put his hat on.

”Besides, this is all part of my master plan to make you into a baseball fan.”

Lee’s smile widened as Kevin not only picked up the glove, but also put his phone away. Lee didn’t think that was going to happen that easily today.


And Tarin had wanted to get the gloves for both Kevin and her. Seeing how excited Kevin looked (even though he was trying to play it cool), Lee was very glad Tarin had done this.


Having closed her guitar case, Lee grabbed the glove that Tarin had set down for her and was getting to her feet when he spoke again. Raising her eyebrows, Lee held the glove in her hand, not yet putting it on. ”You’ve had a master plan this whole time?” she asked, hitting Tarin’s shoulder with the glove as she walked past him. ”I hope you’re ready for how bad I’m going to be.”

”The whole time.” Tarin confirmed, laughing when Lee hit him with the glove. But she was standing and she had the glove and it seemed like she was actually going to play.

”There’s a first time for everything…” Tarin said when Lee hoped he was ready for how bad she was. ”You can’t be good at everything.”

It looked like they were ready now though and Tarin realized that he hadn’t bothered to find out how much either of them had played before. Well, that was alright.

It looked like Kevin had his glove on and was a reasonable distance away so Tarin made sure to make eye contact before he tossed a pretty high, slow throw in his direction ”Slow and steady to warm up.”

Lee rolled her eyes hearing Tarin laughing as she walked away, putting distance between them so that they could play catch.


But then Tarin continued speaking, and Lee turned to look at him again. ”This isn’t the only thing I’m bad at,” she told him. ”Though part of me wants to make sure I’m good that this to prove you wrong.”


”Oh relax mum,” Kevin said. ”You’re always telling me to just do my best. You should follow your own advice.”


Lee looked at Kevin as if she was offended. First he ratted her out about starting to watch the games before Tarin was home and now this?


Apparently it was time to start, though, as Tarin tossed the ball over to Kevin.


Kevin was not physically awkward by any means after six years at the gym, but this was a completely different action than he had done anywhere other than occasionally in gym class. So while awkward, he did manage to catch the ball. At least his toss back to Tarin was better.

”Don’t threaten me with a good time…” Tarin said when Lee pointed out that she was making her want to get good at baseball just to prove him wrong.

Kevin had Lee’s number too, but in the opposite direction talking about doing your best and following her own advice. Tarin had to laugh.

Kevin actually didn’t do bad on the catch or the throw and Tarin snagged he ball out of the air when the teen tossed it back to him. ”Not bad.” he said, then turned to Lee who was standing there in that pretty dress wearing a baseball glove.

Sigh.

”Alright, same thing.” he said, and tossed the ball high and soft in Lee’s direction.

Lee sick her tongue out at Tarin when he said not to threaten him with a good time. ”I did say only a part of me.”


But Kevin did well when Tarin threw the ball, and even better, she thought, than he'd caught it. Maybe she should have pushed a bit more to get Kevin into a sport in addition to their gym visits, but he hadn’t seemed very interested in any of the options she was giving him.


And then Tarin was throwing the ball toward her. Thankfully, Tarin’s throw was accurate enough that she didn’t have to chase the ball, though the ball did almost bounce out of the glove before she got control of it. Followed by tossing it back toward Tarin.

To her credit, Lee definitely caught the ball. It was more than a lot of people could do the first time they wore a glove so Tarin was impressed.

Then she threw the ball back and…it wasn’t quite as good as the previous catch, but Tarin reached out a bit backhanded and caught the ball easily. ”Nice!”

They tossed the ball like that a few more times to get warmed up and then Tarin started throwing the ball a bit more directly when he threw it to Kevin. So far, the kid was keeping up really well, he had a decent arm for having not played before.

Lee wasn’t really bad either, she wasn’t what Tarin would have called a natural, but he’d expected way worse.

Things had worked out so well.

Tarin had hoped that Lee and Kevin would like the gloves, but he hadn’t anticipated that they’d immediately be so game to play.

Tarin threw the ball to Lee again and she caught it again and he said, ”You really aren’t bad he said as she tossed it back a little wide, ”I bet if you weren’t in a dress you’d be pretty good.”

Looking across the distance, Tarin tossed a harder ball a little wide to see if Kevin could catch it or if he’d have to chase.

Tarin claimed that her catch and following throw were ‘nice’. She knew that he was being very generous with the praise. Even Kevin had done much better than her on his first throw, and he was getting better each time.


But, seeing how much the two of them were enjoying this, Lee couldn't keep the small smile off her face..


”Well you know,” Lee pointed out to Tarin. ”If this hadn't been a complete surprise, maybe I would have known to not wear a dress.”


And, while being ‘not bad’ was not the same as being good, Lee was glad that she apparently wasn't as bad as she had assumed she would be.


Tarin's next throw to Kevin (not a toss because it has a fair bit more power to it) seemed like it was moving faster. And a little wide. Kevin was moving over to catch it, but Lee thought maybe he'd moved too much. From her angle it looked like the ball might hit him rather than be caught. But surely that wouldn't-


A moment later, Lee saw her son's body tensing in anticipation of the ball hitting him.


Only for the ball to stopa couple feet in front of Kevin, bouncing away as if it had just hit an invisible wall before bouncing and rolling along the ground part way back to Tarin.


Lee's eyes widened as she stared at Kevin before darting to Tarin and back to her son. Was that…? Had he?


Kevin meanwhile was looking even more shocked than Lee.


”Kevin?” Lee called as she closed the distance between them. ”Are you ok? Was that you?”

It was a super simple thing. The ball had gone wide and Kevin had overcorrected trying to get to the ball. Instead of getting his glove in front of the ball, he’d gotten his body in front of it.

Tarin hadn’t thrown a heater or anything, but it might have stung a bit if the ball had hit.

The ball didn’t hit though. The ball bounced off a few inches from Kevin’s body and bounced off across the ground.

Lee was already moving and it took Tarin a moment to react and then he was running, catching up to Lee as she came up next to Kevin.

”Kevin? Are you okay? Was that you?”

Tarin had a feeling it was. Which he thought was wildly cool. It was one of those things though. Would Lee think it was cool, would Kevin think it was cool?

Tarin stood back a step as Lee approached her son, not wanting to overstep if what he thought was happening was happening but ready to help if the need arose.

Tarin was slower to react than Lee was, but she could feel him following and catching up to her as she stopped in front of her son.


She hadn't noticed before because of the surprise of what had happened, but while she could see Kevin standing a few feet in front of her, Lee couldn't feel him.


”Kev? Are you ok?” she asked, a small smile on her face. He had been staring at the ball on the ground, but now looked up at Lee.


”Did you see that?” he asked, his voice growing more excited with each word. ”Was that me? I think I did that mum!”


Lee laughed softly, her smile growing. ”I did. And I think you're right, Kevin. I think you did do that,” Lee said as she stepped closer reaching her arm out, planning to pull Kevin into a hug whether it would embarrass him or not.


Only for her hand to hit a solid barrier that gave Lee a slight shock before she reached Kevin. ”And I think you're still doing it,” she said as she quickly pulled her hand back, shaking it slightly.

It was Kevin.

Tarin had to grin when it became completely clear what was happening. This was such a far cry from what had happened when his powers had manifested themselves, it was almost…wholesome. This was how it should be when a kid found out what they could do. A few minutes ago, Kevin had been tossing a baseball, a few minutes before that he’d been tapping away on his phone like any other teenager. This was just something new.

Lee approached, but pulled her hand back quickly as she encountered the same thing that had repelled the ball that Tarin had thrown.

Stepping forward tentatively, ready to step back if either Kevin or Lee asked him to, Tarin spoke,

”This is so cool Kevin, but when you’re ready to bring it down, I think that maybe I can help…”

It was so strange. Lee could see Kevin in front of her but couldn't feel any energy coming from him. Meanwhile she couldn't see Tarin standing behind her yet knew he was there because she could feel the energy from him.


Lee watched the smile growing on Kevin's face as realization set in that yes, somehow he had made the baseball stop in mid air before it hit him, that he had done it with powers they hadn't known about just a few minutes earlier.


”This is so cool!” Kevin said. But then his smile faltered. ”I’m not sure how to stop it.”


”That's fine, Kevin, we'll figure it out,” Lee told him.


Then she heard Tarin speaking, saying he thought that he could help. Lee stepped to the side slightly to give the two of them space as she heard Kevin's speak.


”You can Tarin? How?”