Facing the Consequences (for Maxy)

Yamato watched the game with AJ, cheering on Alex every chance he got. But midway through the game, he heard what appeared to be someone shouting down in the dugout of Alex’s team. Some worried mutterings among the parents soon caught Yamato’s ear, and he glanced at AJ for a moment. “I’ll be back soon. Stay here, alright?”

And with that he made his way down to the dugout, where he found the couch shouting at all the players. Curiosity turning more and more into concern with each word, Yamato moved into the dugout just in time to see the coach shove a kid up against the wall! Fortunately that wasn’t Alex, but Yamato wasn’t about to just leave this alone.

“Hey! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” he shouted, immediately moving up to the coach and giving him a big shove in the chest, pushing him back and away from the rest of the kids.

Just like AJ, Alex wasn't sure what was going on. For some reason they had a different coach for this game than what they have so far this season, but whatever the person's problem was Alex was starting to not have a good time and felt like leaving. Even though Yamato asked her to stay she had a feeling Alex wasn't doing too good at the moment. If things settled he would be up third, but right now he was just confused but also getting a bit upset.

Almost immediately Yamato was thrown a barrage of things like “Who the fuck are you?!,” “This is none of your damn business!” and so on from the coach. The man then reached out to grab Alex, likely to chew him out just like the other kid he’d bullied moments ago, but Yamato wasn’t having any of it. Before he could get to Alex, Yamato grabbed the coach and flung him across toward the other side of the dugout!

Scrambling to his feet, the coach glared at Yamato, who now stood between him and the other players. “....Alright, fine then!” the man said, taking his hat off and hurling it to the ground right by Yamato’s feet. “You coach them then! I’m done!” he said before storming out of the dugout and away from the field.

“Wh... Huh??” Yamato blinked in confusion at what had just happened. He was glad to have helped the kids, but the last thing he’d expected today was to become an interim coach for a little league baseball game. But after a moment, he bent down and picked up the hat and dusted it off, then turned to look at the rest of the kids. “Everyone alright?” he asked, looking at them all to make sure no one was hurt or anything. Once he was sure, he smiled and put on the hat. “Alright then, we’ve got a game to win, so lets start having some fun! Alex, I think you’re up next, pal.” he said, giving him a reassuring nod and pat on the shoulder.

Alex didn't notice what happened right away but eventually he did clue in that that Yamato was able to get rid of the coach that was causing problems for the team. Nobody seemed to question Alex taking over as the team's coach for now. One of the umpires asked a few of the kids near by if anyone knew Yamato, which someone called out "He's one of the player's step father." If Yamato looked for the source of the voice he would eventually see Daisuke winking at him. Usually a question like that would need clarification but nobody seemed to challenge it at the moment, and if anyone did, even though she is off today she would say as a police officer she knows Yamato's story checks out. Other than that, Daisuke would say back and let Yamato do his thing.

Alex did correct Yamato on the batting order but he did appreciate Yamato being reassuring. From what Yamato would have seen from the game so far Alex would appear to be younger than most of his teammates. On average he would be 2-3 years younger than everyone else on the team. Because of a few issues, when he was able to register for the season the division he should have been in was pretty full, so he was going to be moved a division up, which was fine, but due to some technical issue he was accidentally moved an addition one. He clearly wasn't one of the team's better players but he didn't suck. One noticeable thing was though he put in a lot of effort so nobody on the team questioned him.

When he came up there was a runner on second with one out. He already batted once today, striking out that one time.
Unlike last time he did manage to hit the ball. While it wasn't necessarily a powerful hit it did come off the bat at a sharp angle, giving the ball a bit more speed than what it usually did. By the time one of the outfielder's got to the ball the runner that was on base just scored and Alex was close to second. He managed to get to third alright, though the way he came in he kept going and went for home. He missed the base coach's signal to stop there as Alex looked back to the field to see where the ball so he missed the signal. It was going to be a close call at the plate, even though the fielder's throw was a bit higher than what it should have been. Alex slid, he wasn't really good at sliding yet so he messed up part of his chin in the process. Alex felt himself being tagged, but he also knew he touched the plate, just a matter of what the umpire thought happened first.

Daisuke and AJ continued to watch, though they were joined by Daisuke's kids Sky and Excel.

Immediately recognizing the voice that spoke out to vouch for him, Yamato looked in its direction and smiled when he saw Daisuke there in the stands. That put an end to any issues there might’ve been with Yamato being the interim coach, and the game was back on.

When Alex’s hit brought the runner on second all the way back to home for a run, Yamato quickly went to give he kid a high five. “Nice job!” he said, before looking back out to the field in time to see Alex rounding third base and heading home, right as the ball was being hurled to the catcher! “Come on, Alex! You can make it!” Yamato shouted excitedly, watching in anticipation as Alex slid and tagged the base. But, a glove holding the ball came down to touch the boy’s wrist at almost the same time. Yamato couldn’t tell what had happened first, and looked hopefully to the umpire, who then threw both hands out to the sides.

“Safe!” he called out, and instantly Yamato and the rest of the team immediately exploded in a unanimous roar of celebration! “Way to go, Alex!” Yamato called out while hurrying out to congratulate Alex, giving him a high five and a pat on the back. It was right about then that Yamato noticed the boy’s busted up chin. “Hey, you alright there?” he asked, examining it to make sure it was nothing serious, which it thankfully seemed it wasn’t.

“Lets go get that taken care of.” Yamato said while leading Alex back into the dugout while the next batter went out to home plate. The rest of Alex’s team congratulated him on his run, while Yamato found a first aid kit, then cleaned up Alex’s chin as much as he could before putting a bandaid on it. “There. How’s that?”

It did feel a bit funny and scratchy, but nothing that really ‘hurt’ per se. It took him a bit to have everything sink in, but overall he felt good, that and dirty from the slide but it comes with the territory of the game. Daisuke was glad that the outcome of the play was in in Alex’s favour but she tried not to react to loudly since it was just kids ball, that and Alex wasn’t her kid, even though they both knew each other quite well.

After the inning ended one of the other players on the team brought a couple of more balls to the umpire, who then gave him some of the dirtier ones. When they were brought back to the bench Sky snuck over and examined the pile and when nobody was looking she took the ball that Alex hit and she then tugged on Yamato’s pants. Giving him the ball she tells him he might need this later and leaves without saying another word.

The rest of the game went alright overall. Alex got to hit three times more, only getting a single, grounding out the other two times. The homerun he scored earlier ended up being the winning run for his team though. After the game and both teams shook hands, one of the kids told Alex this is where the coaches usually decide on who on their team had the best game. The one base coach that was still there talked it over with Yamato, asking him what he thinks since he wasn’t sure himself. The ball that Sky gave him earlier was what would be given to the kid that they pick. Sky didn’t tell him that he was the ball that Alex got the home run with. How she was able to pick it out of the small pile of balls and identify it as that one who knows.

A few of the kids were eager to know who they coaches would pick, while some didn’t pay attention. Alex looked too tired to notice what was going on. The last couple of innings were rough on him. One of them was an at back he was out on, but did look defensively. Out of everyone he had the dirtiest uniform, but the thing with him was he plays harder when he’s having fun, and if Yamato didn’t act when he did earlier things might not be the same now.

While that was going on, a few of the parents were talking about wanting to ask Yamato if he wanted to stay for the rest of the reason. Daisuke heard this but kept her mouth shut about it. She did grin a little bit and shook her head, knowing Yamato was going to be heading home soon, but it was good to see he was getting liked by the locals.

Once he was certain Alex had been taken care of to the best of his ability, Yamato smiled and gave him another pat on the shoulder, congratulating him on his big play. And just after sending him back off to join the rest of his team as the inning ended, he felt a tug on his pants, and turned to find Sky handing him a baseball. Though initially confused, he took it and put in his pocket, then thanked Sky before returning his attention to the game.

After the game was over, Yamato went out with the rest of the team to shake the hands with the other team’s players and coaches. Once the situation was explained to him regarding the mvp selection, Yamato thought it over for a moment. It was a close game, and everyone had played well. Though, no one else had made a play as big as the one Alex had earlier. So he chose Alex, and gave him the ball Sky had handed him earlier, while the rest of the team and the parents in the stands clapped for him.

Afterward, Yamato gathered the team up for a quick post-game meeting, in which he congratulated everyone on the win and for playing so well. He also said he was glad to see they’d had fun today, which was the most important thing. And after encouraging them to keep working hard and having fun, he ended the meeting and let the players head off to find their parents.

Making his way over to Alex, Yamato gave him a pat on the back again. “Good job out there Alex! I’m sure your mom will be excited to hear all about your big hit. Now lets go find your sister.” he said, then led the way while looking for AJ, though he also wanted to say hi to Daisuke before they left if he could find her too.

Finding AJ wasn't any trouble, neither was getting time to talk to Daisuke. Daisuke informed him that a few of the parents told her that they think he should stay with the team for the summer. Of course she knows he is due to head back after the weekend is over, still it is good to know he made a good impression. The assistant coach's pretty much agreed with what the parents were saying. Nobody knows what happened to the team's current coach or how they got stuck with that other guy but again it was pretty much unanimous. Daisuke said nothing about Yamato's current status with him staying in the country so she'd let him get out of that mess himself.

AJ knew Alex was going to be leaving but with what happened here maybe he would change his mind. She was still too young to know about many things but part of her thought of he is liked and welcomed here why leave it. Alex was just too tired to pay much attention to what was going on, but he was glad with what Yamato told him after the game.

As glad as Yamato was to know he’d made a good impression and earned the respect of the people here, it was awkward knowing so many hoped he would become the new coach when he knew he’d be going back to Japan soon. Just making an announcement that he’d be leaving in a few days might be awkward and dampen the good mood everyone was in, so Yamato decided at least for now not to say anything about it. He’d figure out how to handle that later.

Yamato thanked her for vouching for him earlier in the game, then after saying their goodbyes he led AJ and Alex back to the car. On the way back home, he spotted an ice cream shop. Lita hadn’t given him permission to get them ice cream, but it seemed like a good way to celebrate the game, so he bought AJ and Alex a cone of their favorite flavor of ice cream before taking them back home.

On their way to the car Alex was looking at the ball that was given to him.  He way he was looking at it made AJ tell him “No don’t do that Alex, you earned it” as if she knew what he was thinking.  Part of him was thinking of giving it to Yamato.  Before he could act on his thoughts or at least talk with Yamato about it Daisuke yelled out to Yamato “Heads up!”  She tossed a ball towards him, with some decent speed behind it.  It was one of the foul balls that disappeared and that was forgotten about, but she found it.  Even though Alex got the main game ball, Daisuke figured that Yamato deserved this one, which she would simply say “You deserve it” before leaving herself.

Just as they were about to leave from getting ice cream Lita gave Yamato a shout and asked how things are.  She mentions she’ll be back in under an hour.  She does mention as well that she got a couple of texts saying that her husband is awesome and wonders if he knows what that is about, which she sounds a bit confused and unsure about it.  She then gets one from Daisuke that say ‘one of us will explain later but I kind told people Yamato was your husband, but it was for the greater good any everything worked out.’